I’ve been intrigued by Slim Aarons photographs for as long as I can remember. As a kid flipping through my mother’s old copy of A Wonderful Time, I was transported to some lush and exotic location through his impressive eye for all things beautiful.
Slim’s career had seemed to slow down in the ’90s, but there was a resurgence and interest in his work in 2003 with the release of Once Upon A Time; and when the opportunity came to attend a book party in his honor at Mecox Gardens (antique furniture store) in New York I jumped at the chance to meet him.
I remember the night vividly, the store was packed with admirers waiting to get the chance to have him sign their books. I spent a moment chatting with him about his work and mentioning mutual friends [including my sister] who he had photographed on his last shoot in Newport in the late ’80s. But he looked completely overwhelmed by the amount of people who had showed up so I quickly moved on.
I’d been interested in putting together a show of his work for some time so I reached out to Shawn Waldron who manages the Slim Aarons archive. After discussing a few different show scenarios the idea for Slim Aarons: Newport Days came about.
The exhibition — which opened on July 11th at the Redwood Library & Athenaeum in Newport, Rhode Island — is the first devoted to the renowned lifestyle photographers work in Newport and New England. Featuring 75 images and related ephemera, the exhibition is a collaboration with Getty Images and Newport Curates.
I chatted with Shawn to discuss the exhibition and his work with the Slim Aarons archive.
What is the concept behind Slim Aarons: Newport Days?
Slim spent decades on the road hopping from one freelance assignment to the next. For the next few decades, that meant bouncing back and forth between Europe and the US then later Asia and Africa. He would often return to the same locations. Sometimes, as we see in Newport, decades apart. Surfacing new material from these shoots is a great way dive deeper into Slims archive.
Newport is an interesting city to start this series of exhibitions in that it bookended his career. His very first assignment for LIFE magazine brought him here in 1947. He was still fresh out of the army and working to get his career off the ground. His last shoot was in 1987 for Town & County. By that point he was an elder statesman with hundreds of credits to his name. Slim was also personally fond of Newport; he loved the people there and felt it was the height of society. We also recently learned he proposed marriage to his wife Lorita there!
How did you become involved with Slim Aarons?
About five years ago I was asked to take over the day the day-to-day management of Slim’s archive. Mark Getty purchased the archive directly from the photographer in 1997 when Getty Images was only two years old at that point, so it was one of the company’s first acquisitions.
The archive is very popular and global interest in Slim remains high so it’s been a great archive to spend time developing. My main goal is to expand the public’s knowledge of Slim beyond Kings of Hollywood and Poolside Gossip as his story is a classic American tale of hustle and drive.
Since taking over the archive I’ve published two books, Slim Aarons: Style in 2021 and Slim Aarons: The Essential Collection in 2023.
They were great projects to work on at home during the pandemic. Style was sequenced using small cutouts on my living room floor. Moving forward, the focus is on creating localized exhibitions as a vehicle for diving deeper into Slim’s archive. He produced hundreds of thousands of frames over forty-plus years.
We have barely scratched the surface in terms of what has been seen. A quarter of the recent books and upcoming exhibits are previously unseen material!
Where were you before?
I was the director of the Condé Nast archive for 10-plus years before coming to Getty Images. It was a wonderful collection to work with as it taught me so much about the history of publishing along with a front row seat for the best fashion photography of the past one hundred years.
So, what’s next?
The exhibition opens on July 11th and will be up though December 2024. There will also be an evening panel discussion on Slim’s life and legacy at the Redwood on August 7th.
Slim Aarons: Newport Days
July 11th — December 2024
Van Alen Gallery at the Redwood Library and Athenaeum, Newport, Rhode Island
