Fabulous Photographer, Slim Aarons

'Sundowners' two bikini clad holidaymakers, enjoying a glass of wine outside the Carlton Hotel Cannes 1958

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."

  Beach at Saint Tropez

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 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.

 'Kings of Hollywood' 1957

 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.

 'Having a Topping Time', socialite Alice Topping, relaxing by the poolside in Palm Beach, 1959

I can't say I blame him for wanting to "photograph attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places" after some of the dreadful things he must have experienced during the second world war, I think his photographs are wonderful, they just jump out at you and are full of vitality and colour.  It must have been wonderful jetting round the world, hobnobbing with the rich and famous, photographing them for a living, what a life!  His photos helped to fuel the aspirational needs of the post war world and are a wonderful chronicle of the second half of the twentieth century.

'Five debutantes' 1955

Katherine Hepburn 1953

'Leisure and fashion' a woman watching a poolside fashion show at the Colony Hotel,Palm Beach Florida, 1961

'Sea Drive' Naussau 1967

'Park Avenue' Diana Vreeland with her husband Reed chatting to slim Hawks at a New Years Eve party, 1952

Mara Lane at The Sands, Las Vegas 1954

'New York Picnic', 1952

'Mans Work', Hugh Hefner surrounded by bunny girls at the Key Club, Chicago, 1960

Dolores Del Rio, Acapulco 1952

Trueman Capote in his apartment, Brooklyn Heights, New York 1958

Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall at their Beverly Hills home, 1951

'Christmas Swim' Rita Aarons, Hollywood 1954

Marilyn Monroe sorting out her fan mail 1952

Babe Paley by the pool 1959

Courtourier Dimitri Kritsas posing with models at The Temple to Poseidon,1961

 
Cee Zee guest 1955

King of Hatters, Mr John, Fifty Seventh Street, New York, 1960

Joan Collins with a pink poodle, 1955

 Lady Daphne Cameron 1959

Noel Coward in Jamaica 1959

The Hon Desmond Guiness with his children 1963

Renata Boeck at the Regency Hotel, New York, 1964

Diana Dors 1955

'Look, No Shoes!' Mrs Atwater Kent Jnr, 1964

Donna Domitilla Ruspoli at Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome, 1960

'Penthouse Pool', Athens 1961

Lord Litchfield and friends 1968

 'Ladies of Leisure'

'Gossip by the Pool' 1970

Kaufman House 1970

 Louis Jourdan and his wife 1969

'Finding a Spot' Sardinia 1973 

Gianni Versace 1983

 Giacomo and Stefania Montegazza welcome guests arriving by boat at their villa on Lake Como, 1983

Donna Anna Monroy di Giampilieri, Villa Spedalotto, nr Palermo, Scicily, 1984

Veruschka Acapulco 1986

 Slim Aarons, relaxing!

 There are some wonderful coffee table books of his work available here

Lovely, Lovely Stuff

I really admire people who can do the minimalist thing, clean lines and a clutter free lifestyle but for me it's out of the question, I just can't help myself, I accumulate stuff.  I have so much stuff now that I am seriously thinking about starting a blog shop.  I came across these images taken by Gilles Trillard.  I love houses that are rammed so full of interesting objects that they resemble antique shops, there is always so much to look at...

 

 

 

Love this Godin Colonial wood burner

This is ours salvaged from a local dusty old brocante shop

Partymarth & More

Apologies for the absence, I have had a touch of bloggers block over the last few days, most unlike me, I think I have recovered, it's pouring out of me now.

I know some of you wanted to know about the party, please don't be cross with me but I did not take photos, no, not one! I intended to, I even placed my camera behind the sound system, ready to pull out and snap away, but it all got too busy, I seemed to be preparing right up until the doorbell rang, heralding the arrival of the first guests and then things got pretty chaotic from that point on.  Everybody seemed to have a great time, MG's curry went down a storm, those that were not quick enough missed out but were assured by the people that were quick enough, that it was delicious (we will make more next time, good curry is hard to find in France!)  I stuck to my guns and drank Indian tonic water until I could not stand it any longer, after the food and everyone was settled I got stuck into the wine and caught up very rapidly with everyone else.  The volume on the sound system was gradually turned up and there was lots of dancing and jumping about. The party finally wrapped at 6.30am, all in all a pretty good do, the recovery process took two days. Now we have cut our party teeth we will definitely have a Midsummer party outdoors and I promise to take photos!

 I was honoured to be awarded the Stylish blogger award from lovely Fly in the web over at French Leave and also from super stylish Jeanne-Aelia Desparmet-Hart over at Through the French Eye Of Design.

You know how it goes I have to reveal seven things about myself, bearing in mind I have done this before I now have to think of seven more things that you don't already know, that hopefully wont bore you to death.
  

I am very short sighted and should wear corrective lenses all the time, however I am very vain and only wear my glasses when absolutely necessary, this has led to some embarrassing incidents over the years, like going up to the wrong person and kissing them etc. I have tried contact lenses but don't get on with them at all and I have also considered laser eye surgery but I am a bit squeamish about it.  Over the years I have got used to and quite like seeing the world as an impressionist painting although it would be nice to have the freedom to buy non prescription sunglasses.

(This is not me canoodling with Tony Hadley from Spandau Ballet!)

When I was a teenager sometime back in the eighties I got jobs posing for photo stories in teenage magazines such as Jackie, My Guy and Blue Jeans.  I got paid five pounds an hour, which seemed like a fortune at the time, far more lucrative than a paper round.

Don't be fooled by the smile, he wants you for lunch!

I am not the sort of person who is normally afraid of things, however I do have an irrational fear of sharks, I adore swimming in the sea, usually the Mediterranean around the French coastline, where I don't think there are sharks but you never know! I always swim out to the edge of the sectioned off area where the buoys are but then I start thinking of sharks and swim back really quickly to the shore.  I know sharks are really important for the eco system of the sea but with their beady eyes and ugly mouths they give me the creeps.

 I am no Albert Einstein, I have always been hopeless at maths, I used to get so frustrated at school because I just did not get maths, I can add and subtract but that's about it, I can't see numbers in my head and still use my fingers to count, I am always asking MG the formula for things on the calculator as I cannot seem to retain the information and pre mobile phones would always misdial numbers.  I saw a program about dyscalculia  which is a form of number blindness, similar to dyslexia, I am convinced I suffer from it, I should take a test.

I would have loved to have worked in the film industry which is very difficult to get into and extremely competitive, I am particularly interested in production especially casting and location.  I have often read a book, and thought that would make a fantastic film and then proceeded to cast the characters and think of suitable filming locations. I am sure it's not as simple as that, you would have to deal with agents, lawyers, contracts, budgets, accountants, insurance, caterers, transport, logistics, councillors, mayors, police, and in certain instances diplomats, presidents and royalty and I would imagine you have to be very ballsy, I think I will stick to casting books, I am quite good at it, often they have been made into films and been cast with my first choices.

I always have a good book in my handbag, you never know when you might need it.

Rufus Sewell is my latest crush, he stated recently: "My favourite things are just wandering from place to place, going to cafes, taking photographs. My favourite day is a happy accident".  A man after my own heart, Ahh Swoon.

That concludes seven things about me, I am supposed to pass this onto seven other bloggers but as this award is doing the rounds and I have lost track of who has done it and who hasn't I pass it onto all the bloggers whom I link to who have not already done it.

Fabulous Photographer, Penny Tweedie

Cojie & Owen at sunset Broome Australia

Penny Tweedie, who has died aged 70, was a pioneering photographer who covered war and conflicts around the world, from Bangladesh and Vietnam to Uganda and East Timor. She was also an award-winning chronicler of Australian Aboriginal culture, and her book Spirit of Arnhem Land (1998) is recognised as a classic.

Penny Tweedie's book
"Spirit of Arnhem Land" 
John with pet joey near Galirri

Her Kentish farming family – she was born in Hawkhurst – were shocked when their Benenden-educated daughter announced that she was going to Guildford art school to study photography. On graduating, Penny joined the hip Queen magazine, which had asked her college to send them their best student. Picture editors soon recognised her outstanding talent. On one occasion the Telegraph magazine discovered that she had taken almost every photo in that week's edition and bylined one story with the pseudonym "Wendy Patien" to save embarrassment. Offered a post as a staff photographer on the Daily Express, she was eventually refused the job on the grounds that some people found it impossible to imagine sending a female photographer to cover a train crash.

Her photos for Shelter of the slums of Glasgow in the 1960s became a memorable series of press and poster advertisements for the housing charity. She always subsidised the work she did for charities and non-government organisations – including Oxfam, Help the Aged, Save the Children and Christian Aid – with work for advertising agencies and catalogues.

Shelter 
Living in one room Glasgow

Save the Children
Child blindness in Calcutta

While working in India in 1971, Penny was commissioned by the Sunday Times to cover the Bangladesh war. Although mistakenly arrested as a spy and imprisoned in squalid conditions by the Indian army, she got out in time to secure a shocking set of photos of Bangladeshi intellectuals rounded up and murdered in the brickfields by the retreating Pakistanis in a last-ditch effort to wreck the new country.

While covering that war, she was summoned to a victory celebration outside Dhaka. Penny realised that some very frightened prisoners, accused of collaboration, were about to be bayoneted to death for the benefit of the foreign press. She and a small group of other photographers refused to participate. Others stayed, arguing that they had a duty to record the event, and won prizes for their work.

The following year, Penny and colleagues were thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin during the mass expulsion of Asians. She had a narrow escape on the Golan Heights in the Yom Kippur war in 1973. An Israeli sergeant scooped her up under one arm and sprinted for the shelter of a tank, cameras jangling, as incoming shells just missed.

Penny's long involvement with Australia and its Aboriginal people began in 1975 when she flew to Alice Springs to photograph the filming of the BBC's Explorers: The Story of Burke and Wills. "It turned out to be an experience that changed the direction of my life," she wrote later. It resulted in a major National Geographic story and her books, This, My Country (1985) and Spirit of Arnhem Land, led to exhibitions and the 1999 Walkley award for photojournalism. Always conscientious, she returned to Arnhem Land with the book proofs to ensure that all were happy with their portrayal.

"Yolngu Boy" movie 
Aboriginal 'Crocodile Man'

Now a single mother to her son, Ben, who travelled with her on many assignments, Penny kept a house in Sydney and for years commuted between the UK and Australia, where the relaxed attitude suited her perfectly. Her work continued and whether it was on the effects of strip-mining in Ghana, Beirut "between the bombs", the aftermath of the tsunami in the Indian ocean or East Timor's struggle for independence, she was often on the road. She saw much of man's inhumanity to man and empathised greatly with the subjects of her photos.

Newsweek 
East Timor demonstrator

Her portraits were striking and her portfolio included Twiggy, Diana, Princess of Wales, John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Germaine Greer and Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Latterly, she was a devoted carer to her ailing mother and lived among the Kent fields of her childhood. Recent work for the National Trust and a spectacular series of photos of Kent and Sussex for a book celebrating 30 years of the Hospice in the Weald – as so often, unpaid – showed that she had lost none of her skill.

Sunday magazine 
Princess Diana on Ayer's Rock - Uluru

Paris Match 
Twiggy, being turned into shop mannequin

Penny considered herself a working photographer to the bitter end. She coped resolutely with professional slights but it seems despair at the world's lack of use for her craft finally induced her to take her own life. Behind the exterior of the intrepid international photographer – cameras over her shoulder, bandana round her neck, wry smile on her face – was a sensitive and compassionate soul, loved and admired by a wide circle of friends across the world.

Written by  Mike Wells and Duncan Campbell from the Guardian Thursday 20th January 2011

I was shocked and saddened when I heard the news of Penny's passing.  Last September I was fortunate enough to meet Penny, she radiated warmth and intelligence.  Although our meeting was all too brief, it was clear that Penny was a fascinating woman who had led an extraordinary life, even though she was one to play her huge achievements down.  I was so looking forward to meeting her again.  My heart goes out to her family and close friends.  The world would be a better place if there were more Penny's in it.

Penelope Anne Tweedie, photojournalist, born 30 April 1940; died 14 January 2011

Party Update

This was the picture I used for the invitations

I mentioned in an earlier post that we are having a party, some of you wanted to know more about it, so I thought I would give you an update.  We have been wanting to have a party for ages, we have been living here for nearly eight years and have been invited to lot's of fabulous parties thrown by others, time to give something back.  Ideally we wanted to have a party in the Summer, I have always fancied throwing a Midsummer night party,  I envision a balmy evening, Chinese lanterns and twinkling night lights in jars bobbing elegantly from tree branches, guests swishing about in their Summer finery, glasses of rose in hand, plenty of Mediterranean style food, and good conversation and laughter until the next mornings sunrise.

Due to various reasons this has not happened, then we were going to have a New Years Eve party but some friends threw one, so we went there instead, Burns night which is tonight was mooted, but it's on a Tuesday, no good for the workers! Plus, where would we find Haggis?  Not really a French thing and you can't have Burns night without Haggis.  So finally we decided to have a 'Beat the January Blues Party' which is being held on Friday night, from 8pm, the invitations have been sent and mostly, responded to, around thirty people will be descending on us.

The preparations are underway...

Cleaning, I have been cleaning the house like a mad thing, MG rather unfairly stated that the house only get's a good clean when we are expecting guests! Bloody cheek!  So untrue.  Nothing has been left untouched, I even cleaned out the fridges and the freezers.

Lighting, MG is the self appointed technical director, he loves lighting. Strange things have been going on outside, the entrance courtyard will be adorned with coloured spotlights, illuminating trees and shrubs.  On the inside, there will be muted lighting and hundreds of candles and night lights, carefully positioned to avoid fire!

Music, we have thousands of tracks on the i phone, which can be hooked up to the amp and speakers, however I wanted to do a party play list, some good friends recently told us about Spotify and now I am totally hooked, you download it to your computer, and basically it will find any musical track you can think of and you can create as many play lists as you want, free of charge!  We had some holes in our music collection that I wanted to fill and the other evening I created a six hour party playlist, I had so much fun listening to tracks I have not heard for ages, I ended up having my own private party, dancing about, drinking wine. The other great thing about it is guests can choose anything they want, they just tap the track or artist onto the laptop and, hey presto!  The technical director has ordered a special lead so it can be played via our amp.  I have chosen some very upbeat stuff, starting demurely at first, Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, all the way through just about every decade and genre finally ending up with early house music from the nineties, this will be for the party hardcore who will still be dancing in the early hours.  We have four spare bedrooms at our disposal, one has already been claimed!  They will all be made up, as I have a feeling they may be needed, this party could go on all weekend!

Food & drink, MG (who is an excellent chef) wants to make two different curry's and a tagine so this will be the main course, for the starters I will do a couple of huge salads; tomato, shallot and feta cheese and also wild rice with artichoke hearts and palmiers,  there will be loads of bread an extensive cheeseboard and for pudding; bread and butter pudding and a huge fruit salad, I think someone mentioned they were bringing home made eclaires, yum!  There will be of course lots of wine of all colours, plenty of spirits and mixers and beer we are thinking of offering everyone vin chaud as they walk through the door but this has not been decided on yet.

Abstemious, yes me, I am the hostess after all, normally at parties I get a bit overexcited and guzzle red wine like home-made lemonade on a hot day, the results have been known to be rather embarrassing not to mention the dreadful hangover the next day, so I will be just drinking a very large tonic water with a splash of vodka for flavour and won't be hitting the wine at least until, all the food stuff is out of the way!

 Outfit, I saw this mini dress in white and black over at lovely Penny Dreadful Vintage it was on sale from Asos reduced from £75.00 to £30.00, I ordered it in black, it's arrived, I have tried it on, it's perfect, I will be wearing it adorned with many strings of pearls.

I think that's about it, I better get back to it, I have lists of things to do.  I wish it could be logistically possible for you guys to come, consider yourselves invited!