Vivian Maier

There has been much hype about this photographer, even some suggestions that the whole episode is too good to be true and in fact a hoax. Regardless, I will give a little background and show some of her photos, as they are really good and worth sharing.

The story is that a former estate agent called John Maloof, from Chicago paid $400 for a box of old negatives in an auction, hoping they might be useful for a book he was writing on Chicago's history. The contents of that box have resulted in a commitment to unravelling Maier's story, a task which has so far taken four years.

Maier was born in 1926 and died in 2009. She never married or had children, nor seemingly, any close friends. People who knew her recall a reclusive, eccentric individual, who spoke in a thick French accent and always wore a heavy overcoat and hat. Her legacy is the 100,000 negatives that are the result of a lifetime of street photography. Her photos give an amazing insight into the way of life in the 1950s and 60s. Her subject matter veers from humanist portraiture and street life, to abstract.

Maloof and the curators of Vivian Maier Photography are sorting through the negatives and some 12,000 negatives are in the public spotlight with her work being compared to legendary street photographers such as Brassai and Cartier-Bresson. Her work is currently on display at the Chicago Cultural Centre and the exhibition is entitled 'Finding Vivian Maier: Chicago Street Photographer'. 

© Vivian Maier