Slim Aarons, born George Allen Aarons (October 29, 1916, Manhattan - May 29, 2006, Montrose, New York), was an American photographer noted for photographing socialites, jet-setters and celebrities.

At 18 years old, Aarons enlisted in the U.S. Army, working as a photographer at West Point and later serving as a combat photographer in World War II and earning a Purple Heart. Aarons said that combat had taught him that the only beach worth landing on was "decorated with beautiful, seminude girls tanning in a tranquil sun."

After the war, Aarons moved to California and began photographing celebrities. In California, he shot his most praised photo, Kings of Hollywood, a 1957 New's Year's Eve photograph depicting Clark Gable, Van Heflin, Gary Cooper and James Stewart relaxing at a bar in full formal wear. Aaron's work appeared in Life, Town & Country and Holiday magazines.

Aarons never used a stylist, or a makeup artist.

Aarons made his career out of what he called "photographing attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places." "I knew everyone," he said in an interview with The (London) Independent in 2002. "They would invite me to one of their parties because they knew I wouldn't hurt them. I was one of them." Alfred Hitchcock's film, Rear Window, whose main character is a photographer played by Jimmy Stewart, is set in an apartment reputed to be based on Aarons's apartment. He died in 2006, and was buried in Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Aarons

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Berenice Abbott was born in Springford, Ohio, in 1898. After graduating from Ohio State University she moved to New York to study journalism, but eventually decided on sculpture and painting.
In 1921 she moved to Paris to study with sculptor Emile Bourdelle. Abbot also worked with the surrealist photographer, Man Ray (1923-25), before opening her own studio in Paris. She photographed the leading artists in France and had her first exhibition at the Au Sacre du Printemps Gallery in 1926.
Abbott returned to the United States in 1929 and embarked on a project to photograph New York. In 1935 she managed to obtain funding for this venture from the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and its Federal Art Project.
In 1936 Abbott joined with Paul Strand to establish the Photo League. Its initial purpose was to provide the radical press with photographs of trade union activities and political protests. Later the group decided to organize local projects where members concentrated on photographing working class communities.
Abbott's photographs of New York appeared in the exhibition, Changing New York, at the Museum of the City in 1937. A book, Changing New York, was published in 1939. She is also published a Guide to Better Photography (1941). In the late 1950s Abbott began to take photographs that illustrated the laws of physics. Berenice Abbott died in Monson, Maine, in 1991.
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAPabbott.htm

Tags:   berenice abbott abbott american photographer 20th century 1936 1930s group portrait new york new york city

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Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.".[2] Diane believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws.[3] A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.[4][5][6][7]
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale.[8] Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979.[9][10] Between 2003 and 2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations.[11] In 2006, the motion picture Fur, starring Nicole Kidman as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus

Tags:   diane arbus arbus 1940s doon arbus self-portrait photography

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Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.".[2] Diane believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws.[3] A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.[4][5][6][7]
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale.[8] Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979.[9][10] Between 2003 and 2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations.[11] In 2006, the motion picture Fur, starring Nicole Kidman as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus

Tags:   diane arbus arbus 1960s new york photography

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Diane Arbus was an American photographer and writer noted for black-and-white square photographs of "deviant and marginal people (dwarfs, giants, transgender people, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.".[2] Diane believed that a camera could be “a little bit cold, a little bit harsh” but its scrutiny revealed the truth; the difference between what people wanted others to see and what they really did see – the flaws.[3] A friend said that Arbus said that she was "afraid . . . that she would be known simply as 'the photographer of freaks'"; however, that phrase has been used repeatedly to describe her.[4][5][6][7]
In 1972, a year after she committed suicide, Arbus became the first American photographer to have photographs displayed at the Venice Biennale.[8] Millions of people viewed traveling exhibitions of her work in 1972–1979.[9][10] Between 2003 and 2006, Arbus and her work were the subjects of another major traveling exhibition, Diane Arbus Revelations.[11] In 2006, the motion picture Fur, starring Nicole Kidman as Arbus, presented a fictional version of her life story.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Arbus

Tags:   diane arbus arbus 1960s new york photography

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