Catherine Wilke
Slim Aarons · 1980
From € 250.00 Including VAT
About this work
Catherine Wilke, Punta Tragara, Capri 1980
Against an orange tile wall lie five white mattresses one above the other like steps. At the top a woman in a blue bikini lies back, her face to the sun; lower, a blonde woman lies on her stomach; at the very bottom a woman in a straw hat and striped bottoms reads. In front a fourth woman stands in profile, hands behind her head, at a pool's edge.
According to the caption, Catherine Wilke joined Elisabetta Catalano, Charlotte Ticken and Pamela Grupas at the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri in 1980. Which of the four women is who, the caption does not say, and this text points to no one. The picture is built from horizontals: the rows of mattresses and the reclining women. The standing woman is the only vertical and cuts through those layers, while the narrow strip of blue water at the bottom gives the orange plane its counterweight.
- Photographer
- Slim Aarons
- Collection
- Slim Aarons
- Country
- Italy
- City
- Capri
- Year
- 1980
- Reference
- 674383375
The photographer
Photographing attractive people who were doing attractive things in attractive places.
George Allen Aarons, born in New York, served as a military photographer in World War II and subsequently transitioned to print journalism. Whereas he previously documented the war, he deliberately chose the opposite subject: the leisure time of the rich and famous, in breathtaking settings.
His most famous photograph, The Kings of Hollywood (1957), encapsulates what he sought in all his portraits: glamour, charisma, and celebrity, captured in a relaxed manner.
Aarons won the trust of the people he photographed, thereby gaining access to some of the most intimate and candid portraits of the twentieth century. In 2007, Getty Images published the book Poolside With Slim Aarons , crowning his legacy.
- Born October 29, 1916 , New York
- Died May 29, 2006 , Montrose, NY
- Hulton Archive / Getty Images
