No one has ever been able to capture the idea of what it means to be, aesthetically speaking, poolside the way Slim Aarons did. I’ve seen digital replicas, so-called “inspired by” moments and they are all too perfect – too clean – to be Slim. There was something gritty, imperfect and quite raw about his photographs that make them difficult to duplicate – probably even for him. He captures the ontological beauty that exists in this world just as the naked eye would see it. A rare gift even I wish I possessed. All we do now is edit, filter, crop, de-saturate, and stage our images so that the final product doesn’t resemble the real objects at all. But if you’ve ever been to the Amalfi Coast you’ll know that it really does look and feel the way Slim photographed it – with no added jazz. His images don’t need VSCO. They are VSCO.
So many great images!