“ Well, I suppose nothing is meant to last forever. We have to make room for other people. It’s a wheel. You get on, you have to go to the end. And then somebody has the same opportunity to go to the end and so on. “
– Vivian Maier *
Vivian Maier was a mystery.
Born in New York in 1926, she lived most of her adult life working as a nanny in Chicago and during her free time quietly pursued photography, eventually amassing an archive of more than 100,000 negatives. Her portraits and images of street life reveal touching and humorous moments. She did not share her work with anyone.
Maier’s archive was almost lost until her storage lockers were sold at auction in 2007. Among the buyers was a collector, John Maloof, who had acquired thousands of negatives and rolls of undeveloped film and over time came to realize that this trove represented the work of an unknown talent, one of the greats of mid-late 20th century street photography. Since then, he has continued to catalog her archive.
Vivian Maier died in 2009, leaving many unanswered questions. She never experienced her well-deserved success.
GR
1 August 2020
Sources:
* vivianmaier.com
Photos: howardgreenberg.com
More on the life and work of Vivian Maier:
“ Finding Vivian Maier, “ – Oscar-nominated documentary film. https://www.ifcfilms.com/films/finding-vivian-maier
PBS: Vivian Maier – A Portrait of a Private Artist https://youtu.be/_Tyr866B_jc
“ Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife “ by Pamela Bannos – an impressive and detailed portrait of this enigmatic artist https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/V/bo26171419.html
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George Romanation 