More sewing inspiration this week came by way of this hour-long documentary on photographer Slim Aarons.  What caught my eye first, were the colorful ‘everyday’ dresses and the lighting.

The trailer for Slim Aarons; The High Life:

Slim’s former assistants were interviewed in the documentary.  They were lovely and poised, and told good stories.  “We’re waiting for clouds.”  I’ll remember that one.  In listening to his assistants tell about the photos, I fell in love with the fact that minimal makeup and staging was involved.   The subjects were mostly rich, privileged, and often famous, but the settings relaxed and the smiles were natural.

The documentary only lasts an hour, but that was just the start for me.  After the documentary, I spent an absurd amount of time perusing the Getty photos website, where Slim’s archive is available for viewing and prints for purchase.

A few of the many images that grabbed me, for their nostalgia or for sewing inspiration, or both:

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Don’t recognize anyone in the slide show above?  Then try these:

February 1989: British rock star Mick Jagger holidays on the island of Mustique in the Grenadines. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images)

August 1968: Singer Marianne Faithfull and Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones stand in front of a gilt framed portrait in Castletown Mansion, Eire. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images)

circa 1955: American baseball player Ted Williams (1918 – 2002), outfielder and slugger for the Boston Red Sox. (Photo by Slim Aarons/Getty Images)

Slim had a repeat theme of hammocks, and furry boots.  I love both.

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These next few really triggered my creative impulses:

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Slim’s use of light was distinctive.  Several of his snowy scenes reminded me of the movie, Grand Budapest Hotel.  (Love that movie!)  This picture is an example:

The documentary is in the Amazon Prime Video collection.  Link to the documentary: https://smile.amazon.com/Slim-Aarons/dp/B07CJSTXD4

But no Prime, no problem.  The full documentary is available on YouTube:

Slim would have celebrated his 100th birthday in October 2016.  That month, Getty released this 1-minute video of 100 of his images.

As mentioned above, Getty purchased Slim’s entire archive, and displays the collection beautifully here:  https://www.photos.com/slim-aarons

There is a collection of coffee table books of Slim’s photos. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0810946033

Slim’s Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Aarons

Another lover of photographs: