Slim Aarons' sexy seventies photography

Some photos of a beautiful house that I was recently sent featured a big, framed print by the late American photographer, Slim Aarons. It was one of his most famous shots (which you can see directly below), and it reminded me how much I love his richly coloured, 1960s and 1970s photographs of, in his own words, "attractive people, doing attractive things in attractive places".

Poolside Gossip, 1970

The former soldier, who died in 2006, is said to have turned to his glamorous style of photography as a reaction against the horrors of combat. His work often looks like a parallell universe of John Hinde's colour-saturated postcard pictures – where Hinde snapped the everyday holidaymaker, Aarons captured Britt Eckland in St Tropez, Patsy Pulitzer on a boat (black and white, at bottom), or – in the 1957 photograph that shot him to success – Kings of Hollywood, a black and white, bar-side shot of Clark Gable, James Stewart, Gary Cooper and Van Heflin. But both photographers, as well as colour, are interested in interaction – often catching people mid-conversation or action, making the viewer a bit of a voyeur – here, into a fabulously exclusive world.

If you have a couple of hundred quid to invest in some classic photography, many – as indicated below where relevant – are available to buy. I'd love to have one on my wall. But which to choose...?

Beach, St Tropez, undated Buy from $275 for 10" x 12" from the (American) Photographers Gallery.

Flair Ladies, 1962 Buy from $275 for 10" x 12"
Presenters of the American television show, Flair, on the ABC channel

Man at Work, 1960 Buy from $275 for 10" x 12"
Hugh Hefner in his less wrinkly days

Above, Patsy Pulitzer and, below, no, not Slim Aarons, but one of my favourite John Hinde photos, taken for Butlins in the 1960s.