Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Slim
Aarons
About this photograph :
Lake Tahoe, Nevada
Whilst the man is lying on a sun bed next to a swimming-pool, the young woman, immersed in the water, is leaning on the side to talk beneath a radiant sun. The couple is modelled after WASP America from the 50s: radiant and prosperous. The swimming-pool and its bluish water are the central elements of the photograph. Taken at Lake Tahoe, the pool is located right at the border between California and Nevada as indicated by the mosaic inscriptions at the bottom. Of amazing clarity, the photograph is reminiscent of the hyperrealist paintings by the contemporary American painters Eric Zener as well as Alyssa Monks. (1959)
About the artist :
Slim
Aarons
Slim Aarons whose real name is Georges Allen Aarons enlists in the American Army at the age of 18. He becomes a photographer at the West Point Military Academy then a reporter during the Second World War. Regarding his participation in the conflict, which nevertheless earns him a Medal of Honour, Aarons simply says that the only beach worth landing on is the one adorned with ravishing young semi-clad girls, sun-bathing peacefully in the sun.
From 1950 to 1980, he becomes a Jet Set photographer and dedicates himself to the depiction of Hollywood glamour and luxury. The figures are exclusively celebrities, photographed in luxurious surroundings, often around a swimming-pool, in their own home. He constructs his career by only photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places. In 2002, he proclaims to The Independent newspaper: «I knew everyone, they invited me to their parties as they knew that I would not cause them any harm. I was one of them».
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