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Vivian Maier street photographer

Posted on March 6, 2015 by Admin under Uncategorized

 

Vivian's self-portrait photo - the cover of  Vivian Maier Street Photographer, edited by John Maloof

Vivian’s self-portrait photo – the cover of Vivian Maier Street Photographer, edited by John Maloof

The recent Oscar’s were a reminder for me to write this blog about the American street photographer Vivian Maier as ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ directed by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel was nominated for best documentary feature.

www.findingvivianmaier.com

I went to see the documentary back in the summer and also have a book of her work ‘Street Photographer’ (edited by John Maloof) and I wanted to write a little about this very talented lady and her work.

Vivian Maier (1926- 2009) was born in New York City to a French mother and Austrian father, she spent many of her younger years in France, returning to America in 1951 to work as a children’s nanny, for families in Chicago.

The nanny’s young charges would often be taken along on her photo expeditions through the cities streets. Nothing seemed to escape Vivian’s camera, ‘Street Photographer’ is packed full of glossy, beautifully printed images – my favourites are portraits of a lady sitting on a bench and a shot of a street newspaper seller asleep, framed by all his papers. There are just so many images to choose a favourite from.

Her work is amazing and even more incredible is the fact that not many seemed to know about her immense photo collection, and that her talents were not discovered until after her death. The eccentric and elusive character was very secretive about her work, but she left behind a legacy that is an extraordinary record of social history from that era.

Fortunately, John Maloof came across about 30,000 of Vivian’s negatives at an auction of contents of unpaid storage lockups in Chicago. The documentary tells the story of John’s discovery of the negatives and subsequent work to archive the immense collection. Vivian’s former charges and employers are interviewed and fascinating glimpses of her character are revealed.

To find out more about Vivian and her work check out: www.vivianmaier.com

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