Vivian Maier (1926-2009)

Vivian Maier’s work was only discovered and recognized after her death, despite taking many thousands (estimated at over 150,000) of photographs. Most of these photographs were taken during the forty or so years she was working as a nanny. In a most unusual way she was discovered by John Maloof who had purchased some of her belongings at an auction. He started to explore the over 100,000 negatives that he had acquired. Some 20-30,000 of these had not even been developed. Quite by chance he had discovered the work of an absolute genius. When Maloof tried to contact Vivian Maier he found out that she had just died aged 83.

Born to a French mother and Austrian father, she got her first camera when she was in her early 20s. This was a Kodak Brownie, which had just one shutter speed, and no aperture dial. A couple of years later in 1951 she travelled to New York as a nannie to an English family. Her love of photography clearly was a factor of her buying a Rolleiflex camera in 1952. Her next move was to Chicago where she was employed by the Gensburg family who had three sons. Here she was able to create a darkroom in her own private bathroom for developing her films. In 1959 and 1960, Maier went by herself on a trip around the world, taking photographs in Los Angeles, Manila, Bangkok, Shanghai, Beijing, India, Syria, Egypt, and Italy. While Maier is known for her black and white street photography especially in New York and Chicago, later in her life she did use colour film. Her colour photos were shot mainly with 35mm film on her Leica and SLR cameras. The subject matter of her photographs were street scenes involving portaits and self portraits, architecture as well as objects seen on the street. In the last couple of decades of her life, she had more financial difficulties and often rolls of film would remain undeveloped. So it was that Maloof came to buy a large number of her photographs when they came to auction via a storage company for non-payment of rent. The story of her life and work has been the subject of many books as well as the Academy Award nominated film for best documentary ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ (2013)

Vivian Maier’s story is a strange one. She photographed for herself and seemed to make no attempt to publish her work. She photographed obsessionally, she photographed herself often in reflections. So easily could her work have been lost without trace. Yet, she has become one of the most highly respected Street Photographer of the 20th Century.