Getty Images, "Transport Buffs", Slim Aarons, August 1, 1976

This extraordinary photograph captures an opulent scene aboard a luxury yacht in Monte Carlo Harbour, where Iowa businessman Roy J. Carver and Prince Polignac enjoy the ultimate in transportation extravagance - a helicopter and two motor boats adorning the deck of their magnificent vessel. The image perfectly embodies the jet-set lifestyle of international high society, where multiple modes of luxury transport converge in one of the world's most exclusive harbors.

This photograph captures the pinnacle of 1970s wealth and leisure, featuring Roy J. Carver, the Iowa industrialist who by this time had built Bandag into one of America's top corporations, earning a spot on Fortune's top 1,000 companies list and amassing a fortune estimated between $200-300 million. Aarons masterfully documents the era's ultimate display of prosperity, where successful entrepreneurs like Carver indulged in multiple yachts, airplanes, and luxurious properties spanning from Cannes to Central America. This scene represents the height of Monaco's allure as a playground for European nobility and international business titans, where the convergence of land, sea, and air transportation symbolized the boundless mobility and freedom that defined elite leisure in the jet age. The image embodies the sophisticated excess that characterized the golden era of luxury yachting, when Monte Carlo's harbor served as the ultimate stage for displaying one's mastery over every mode of elegant transport.

Slim Aarons, renowned for his evocative photographs of, as he described it, "attractive people doing attractive things in attractive places," was the quintessential chronicler of high society. After serving as a war photographer, Aarons turned his lens to a new landscape: the glamorous lives of Hollywood elites, Palm Beach socialites, and jet-setting debutantes and princes. His work for society publications captured an aspirational world of leisure and luxury that defined the American upper class throughout the mid-20th century, creating images that remain timeless symbols of sophistication and style.

Every piece in our unique Slim Aarons collection is meticulously handcrafted using archival materials and printed on premium, luster photographic paper with environmentally safe inks, custom framed by skilled artisans who ensure that each work of art meets the exacting standards befitting such an iconic photograph.