Vivian Maier's Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera was more of an additional limb than an accessory. A quiet women, known only to a few families, and the faces of Chicago she photographed. Why was Vivians work never noticed in her lifetime. Probably because she never bothered to developed her spools. Why? We can only guess. Perhaps Vivian found it more inspiring or just simply cheaper to use her funds to buy new film. As a photographer myself, I remember the images I take and I often wonder whether I should take the same path.
Maier’s sudden ascent from reclusive eccentric to an acclaimed street photographer (whom captured the daily life of a lost Chicago) is one of the most remarkable stories in the history of photography.
In 2007, a locker’s owned by the photographer ended up at a Chicago auction house, after payments stopped. Here a young real estate agent named John Maloof found boxes of undeveloped 120mm and 35mm negatives. Maloof, was able to distinguish the images were of Chicago. Intrigued, he bought a box of 30,000 negatives for $400.
Maloof understood the locker had belonged to the name Vivian Maier which meant little to nothing to nobody. After spending months sifting through the negatives in April of 2009 he found an envelope with her name on it.
He used the magic of Google and found a paid death notice in the Chicago Tribune just a few days before.
It read:
“Vivian Maier, proud native of France and Chicago resident for the last 50 years, died peacefully on Monday.”
Maloof would later learn, Maier was a New Yorker. Born in 1926, to her French mother and Austrian father; she spent part of her youth in France, and in her adult life worked as a nanny in the United States for over 50 years, retiring in the 1990s. In the fall of 2008, she slipped on a patch of ice, sustaining a head injury that led to other problems and died April 20, 2009, age 83.
Maloof started a post online about her images and began sharing photographs on Flickr. Even though Maloof was drawn to her images he was completely unaware of the treasure trove he's unconvered until photographers around the world starting gaining a deep interest.
News reports were followed by interest from well-respected galleries. Maloof edited a book of her work, called - Vivian Maier: Street Photographer, and produced an award wining film called Finding Vivian Maier.
Maloof has now accumulated at least 100,000 Maier negatives, buying them from other people who had purchased them at the same auction; a collector named Jeffrey Goldstein owns an additional 15,000. Both men are archiving their collections, posting favorite works online as they work tirelessly through the process, building a case for Vivian Maier as a street photographer in the same league as the likes of Robert Frank—though Goldstein acknowledges that gallery owners, collectors and scholars will be the ultimate arbiters, as it always is with art.
Why did Vivian Maier take so many pictures? and more importantly why didn't she develop them? People remember her as stern and mean nanny, occasionally abusive (which was kind-of normal in these days) serious and eccentric, with few friends, yet a tender women, with a quirky shadow that followed her everywhere: her collections include ~ old folks napping on a train; the wind ruffling a plump woman’s skirt; a child’s hand on a rain-streaked window. “It seems there was something disjointed with Vivian Maier and the world around her.
How close did this come to just being tossed in some bin, recycled, you know? Instead you have half a century of American life.
Article by Cotton.
Images by Vivian.