Aarons retired in the early 1990s, when he was about 70 years old, but still regularly sold his photos to magazines and other outlets. A number of his pictures — among them, “The Kings of Hollywood” — had, over time, evolved into a kind of visual shorthand for old-school style and was always in demand. This never-seen picture, made the same year as “The Kings of Hollywood,” shows two men helping a woman off a fishing boat in the Bahamas, and captures that same old-world grace. Aarons, who was awarded a Purple Heart after being wounded in WWII, once said that if combat taught him anything, it was that the only beach worth landing on was "decorated with beautiful, seminude girls tanning in a tranquil sun." Today, when the rich and famous sometimes seem more desperate for attention than the rest of us, Aarons' pictures are a reminder that attractive people once spent their days and nights quietly and discreetly doing attractive things in attractive places. Luckily, Slim Aarons was there to capture it all — a lost world that, all these years later, still shapes and colors our dreams.
For more never-seen Slim Aarons photos, visit FOTO.