Slim Aarons is my favorite photographer. I can’t actually name many photographers – perhaps only four or five famous ones. But of those I can name, and those I can’t, Slim Aarons is far and away my favorite.
Aarons served in the U.S. Army as a combat photographer in WWII, where he earned a reputation as a fearless journalist, with a Purple Heart to prove it. But it wasn’t his work on the battlefield that made Aarons famous. Quite the contrary. It was his determination to distance himself as far as possible from the carnage of war that brought Aarons renown. When war broke out on the Korean peninsula in 1950, Aarons declined to cover the war as a civilian journalist, and determined to spend the rest of his career “photographing attractive people who were doing attractive things in attractive places.” And that’s exactly what he did.
At fabulous estates in Beverly Hills and Bermuda, at Park Avenue afterparties in Manhattan, at poolside soirées in Palm Beach and Palm Springs, in villas and resorts in Monte Carlo, Italy and along the French Riviera, Slim Aarons made a career photographing the lives of those who New York society journalist Igor Cassini called “the jet-set.” Over four decades, Aarons’ photos graced the pages of Life, Holiday and Town and Country magazines, and brought the lifestyles of modern café society to living rooms, beauty salons and waiting rooms across America.
If you’re an entrepreneur, aspiring empire-builder, or simply a social climber, you’ll definitely find inspiration in Aarons’ work. In fact, I could go on and on about Slim Aarons, but he’s not actually the subject of this article. The subject(s) of this post are the people who served as Slim Aarons’ subjects: those wealthy, beautiful people living the high life in Aarons’ photographs.
I have all but one of Slim Aarons’ books – each one a large, coffee table edition. It’s easy to get lost in the photos and narratives, thinking about the lifestyles his privileged subjects enjoyed, and how “lucky”
they were to have come into such wealth. Then I’m reminded, Aarons didn’t capture lifestyles, he merely caught moments in time. His camera captured evidence of wealth, but those trappings were merely the result of a lifestyle, not the actual lifestyle itself.
What Aarons’ lens didn’t capture was the tireless grind, relentless determination, discipline and sacrifice of his subjects, and the risk they took to achieve their success – that’s the real lifestyle reflected, but not seen, in Slim Aarons’ photos. That’s the lifestyle needed to build and maintain wealth.
I worked in China for thirteen years. For twelve of those years I lived and worked full time mostly in the relatively small city of Zhangjiagang. My Seattle-based business partner and I owned a successful manufacturing company, which we’d built from nothing. My children lived in China for 18 months early on, before returning to the U.S. with their mother. Thereafter, they would join me in China during summers. It was important to me that they see as much of the world as possible, so we’d travel each summer as much as my schedule permitted. I’d also bounce back to the States several times a year for rest and relaxation with my children. I remarried in 2012. During my last three years in China, my wife, Monica, and I returned to the U.S. seven or eight times a year, sometimes for a couple weeks, sometimes only for three or four days, collectively racking up nearly a quarter-million airline miles annually.
When we were home in the U.S. with my kids, or traveling with them for pleasure, I did as little work as I could get away with. And that was the only part of our lives people saw. Just like the pages of a Slim Aarons book, social media showcased moments in time that didn’t accurately reflect our actual lifestyle
What people didn’t see, and what Facebook didn’t show, was the grind of building a business from scratch in a communist country, of learning to do business in a foreign language, in a foreign culture, in a very bureaucratic system. They didn’t see the risk. If my company didn’t make money, I didn’t make money. No one saw that.
No one saw the heartache of being away from my children; of missing nine Thanksgivings, numerous basketball games and band performances, and countless bedtime stories, hugs and kisses. They didn’t see the stress that comes with risking everything you own month after month, year after year, to grow a company. They didn’t see the loneliness felt every night in a world where people don’t understand your culture or your values, and where you can truly communicate with relatively few people.
No one saw any of that. People saw only photos of us lounging poolside here and there, enjoying ourselves in beautiful, sometimes exotic, locations.
Like the subjects in a Slim Aarons photograph, we appeared to be living a “charmed” life. But those were just brief moments away from the grind that was our real lifestyle – manufacturing full time in communist China.
Since selling my company, I have a new grind. I now work from our home in San Antonio developing and managing real estate and, as time permits, writing. My wife, Monica, has her own home-based business, blogs and devotes part of her day to anti-human trafficking work. Our work day usually starts by 8:00 am and too often ends after 7:00 or 8:00 pm, with a break for the gym, lunch and errands, usually six days a week. It’s 8:21 pm as I write this, and when I finish here, I need to track down a contractor who is supposed to start work on a property tomorrow.
People might see a charmed life. We’re very blessed, to be sure. And we thank God every day for those blessings. We have nice things, and that’s all most people see. What they don’t see is the tireless grind, the risk, determination, discipline and sacrifice it takes to build and maintain that “charmed” life. We all encounter opportunities. You choose whether or not to seize them. What sacrifices are you prepared to make, what risks are you willing to take, what are you prepared to do – that others may never see – to achieve what you want to achieve?
Genevieve Muniz
15 Apr 2019Yes! The reality behind success can be tough to bear but can be so rewarding. “Life work balance” is the ultimate dream for most but can be difficult to achieve. I love the work hard, play hard attitude you seem to encourage. With great opportunity also comes great responsibility and sacrifice. Thanks for sharing your story! You and Monica are great examples!
kevin@kevinchaney.com
16 Apr 2019Thank you, Genevieve!