Pebble Beach
Slim
Aarons
About this photograph :
Pebble Beach
Situated in the Palm Springs area of California, Pebble Beach is known for its combination of natural beauty and luxury leisure pursuits. As well as its magnificent golf course, there is a riding centre popular with the Jet Set.
The photograph depicts five horsemen returning from a ride along the beach in an end of day fading light. Slim Aarons has chosen a large framing composition and the scenery consequently takes up an area larger than the main subject. The composition of the photograph is based on its depth. The succession of plans draws the eye towards the distance, beyond the horizon encompassed between the cloudy sky and the sea. The photographer has organised his artwork according to the rules of painting. In painting the rushes in the foreground are called "embossing tools". Their function is to make the other elements appear smaller and therefore more distant but also to emphasize the other motifs through the use of contrasts. This perspective which constantly draws your viewpoint towards the distance is reminiscent of theories about renaissance painting and in particular Alberti’s well-known phrase which compares a work of art to a window open towards infinity.
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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