Stories
The places, the people and the afternoons behind the best-known photographs in our collection.
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Acapulco Keep Your Cool
A table in the swimming pool, two white chairs in the shallow water and a backgammon board between two players. Acapulco, and beyond that only turquoise.
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Beverly Hills Kings of Hollywood
Four film stars in white tie at the bar of Romanoff's in Beverly Hills, all four laughing at the same joke. Nobody looks at the lens. That is why this Slim Aarons photograph still feels like an evening you were at yourself.
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Marbella, 1985 Pantz Pool, 1985
A woman in a pink swimsuit leans back on the edge of a pool near Marbella. Beside her sit bronze dogs, as still as she is, and beyond the edge the sea begins. Who she is makes this photograph special.
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Capri Sunbathing on Capri, 1980
At the Hotel Punta Tragara on Capri, above the Faraglioni rocks, Slim Aarons photographed Catherine Wilke among the other sunbathing guests in 1980. An afternoon in the sun, at one of the loveliest spots on the island.
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Antibes, 1976 Eden-Roc Pool, 1976
A turquoise rectangle cut into white limestone, the sea beside it and the hotel on top of the cliff. Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes, August 1976.
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Porto Ercole, 1973 Hotel Il Pellicano, 1973
The beachside pool of the Hotel Il Pellicano in Porto Ercole, on the coast of Tuscany. August 1973, a summer when nobody had anywhere to be.
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Acapulco, 1972 Poolside Backgammon, 1972
Two women bent over a backgammon board at the edge of the pool, a bright pink bag beside them, and across the water a white villa with columns where the other guests have gathered. Acapulco, 1972.
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Verbier, 1964 Lounging in Verbier, 1964
Beach chairs in the snow, holidaymakers in ski clothes and behind them a mountain range that stays white all the way to the horizon. Verbier, February 1964: a ski slope used as a beach.
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Athens, 1961 Penthouse Pool, 1961
A bathing cap covered in yellow flowers, round red and yellow cushions on the marble, a pool on a rooftop. And behind the balustrade, almost in passing, the Acropolis. Athens, July 1961.
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Cannes, 1958 Cannes Watersports, 1958
A wooden pier, a mast full of flags and two waterskiers drawing white trails through the blue. Cannes in 1958, seen from high above the beach.
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Palm Springs, 1970 Poolside Gossip, 1970
Two women by a pool, a third walking up from the left, and behind them a glass house in the Palm Springs desert. It is Slim Aarons' best-known photograph, and almost nothing happens in it.
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