Slim Aarons: Once Upon a Time

This luxurious book is the ultimate insider's view of the lifestyles of the wealthy, privileged, and powerful. Aarons's first book in nearly 30 years (his long-out-of-print A Wonderful Time is a collector's item fetching more than $1,000 a copy) is an eagerly anticipated publishing event. Presenting Hollywood royalty, European aristocracy, the grande dames of high society, captains of industry, media moguls, statesmen, and luminaries of various stripes, across a vast geography of opulent and glamorous settings, Slim Aarons's photographs-some 250 of which are included here-define the Beautiful People and document a lost era of style, grace, and grandeur.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

Reveries, 2006-02-09
ONCE UPON A TIME is an apropos title for this photomontage of a book. Slim Aarons has the enviable job as a photographer of capturing the rich and famous in their haunts around the world. Now that doesn't seem like a worthy topic for a book, especially now that the factions between the rich and not rich are taking a lot of space in the media. But taking this book as a memento of a time lost, a time when leisure meant beautiful places, elegant food and drink and fashion, passages to spas such as Portofino just for the beauty of the views, turning the pages of this book with that state of mind results in some lovely reveries of how things used to be.

Slim Aarons followed the genteel folk around the globe and while his 'portraits' are not the usual stiff and staid formats, his glimpses of people within the environs is unparalleled. For many the views of the scenery, landscapes, seascapes, wondrous architecture, the concert halls, all captured in alluring light, will be the highlight of this volume. The overall feeling of browsing through Aarons' memoir-like photographs is one of traveling back in time, almost with a fairytale like imagery.

For armchair historians, sociologists, and lovers of foreign places this book will satisfy. Though the locales depicted herein still exist (for the most part) they were never as romantically inclined as Aarons makes them. Grady Harp, February 06


11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

Rehash of previous work, 2006-01-03
I was so disappointed. This book is about 80% material that was previously published in a much classier book, A Wonderful Time. Readers lucky enough to have the earlier book should not waste their money on this rehash.


3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

slim aarons: once upon a time, 2005-09-01
Enjoyable reprint which gives a look at the charms, lifestyle, beauties and characters of about a half century ago..looks as if some of the photos from the original edition were not included, but not sure. Aarons is a bold and creative photographer, that's for sure. Thanks.


3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

a WASPs nest of photos!, 2005-05-17
Very nice, a bit WASP heavy but what do you expect for the time? A fun look into a world gone by.


13 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

Wow! Was I born too late?, 2004-05-12
Mr. Aarons...what a treasure! I won't bother with many words...just...wow is enough!

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