The Grand Plage
Slim Aarons · 1985
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About this work
The Grand Plage, Biarritz 1985
Along the boulevard wall stands a long row of striped beach parasols, red and white and green and white, tilted toward the sun. On the front one it says Biarritz Bonheur. Beyond them the wide sandy beach stretches out with scattered bathers, to white buildings and a rocky point in the sea. On the left spherical lamps stand on the boulevard, and above everything a deep blue, cloudless sky.
In 1985 Slim Aarons photographed the Grand Plage in Biarritz, with the Bellevue Casino and the Hotel du Palais above it and the Bay of Biscay beyond. According to the caption those buildings dominate the beach; in the photograph they stand small on the horizon. The parasols in the foreground take over: their row draws a diagonal that leads the eye straight to the buildings in the distance.
- Photographer
- Slim Aarons
- Collection
- Slim Aarons
- Country
- France
- City
- Biarritz
- Year
- 1985
- Reference
- 101912715
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
