Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work

Friday, November 22, 2013

Vivian Maier - Self Portraits is out!

Each photograph in this self portrait book was first printed by a master printer then scanned into the plates of the book. The book essay is by Elizabeth Avedon. Includes many never before seen photos and a section of her color self portraits. Available on amazon now!

Friday, February 15, 2013

Film Trailer

The Official Trailer for Finding Vivian Maier is here!

More news in the coming months.

www.findingvivianmaier.com

Friday, April 22, 2011

The Official Vivian Maier website is online!

www.vivianmaier.com

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Subscribe to the Vivian Maier Newsletter

We are working on a new website for Vivian Maier and expect to launch it in the coming weeks. If you want to be informed about the launch, about events, exhibitions, features, books and news about Vivian Maier please subscribe to the newsletter .

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Friday, February 25, 2011

Sunday, February 20, 2011

Monday, February 14, 2011

Friday, February 11, 2011

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Monday, January 31, 2011

CBS Evening News segment

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Friday, January 28, 2011

Thursday, January 27, 2011

Vivian's life in obscurity

Some have suggested that I add more information on the story of Vivian's work and such. Here is what I know.

I acquired Vivian's negatives while at a furniture and antique auction while researching a history book I was co-authoring on Chicago's NW Side. From what I know, the auction house acquired her belongings from her storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. I didn't know what 'street photography' was when I purchased them.

It took me days to look through all of her work. It inspired me to pick up photography myself. Little by little, as I progressed as a photographer, I would revisit Vivian's negatives and I would "see" more in her work. I bought her same camera and took to the same streets soon to realize how difficult it was to make images of her caliber. I discovered the eye she had for photography through my own practice. Needless to say, I am attached to her work.

After some researching, I have only little information about Vivian. Central Camera (110 yr old camera shop in Chicago) has encountered Vivian from time to time when she would purchase film while out on the Chicago streets. From what they knew of her, they say she was a very "keep your distance from me" type of person but was also outspoken. She loved foreign films and didn't care much for American films.

Some of her photos have pictures of children and often times it was near a beach. I later found out she was a nanny for a family on the North Side whose children these most likely were. One of her obituaries states that she lived in Oak Park, a close Chicago suburb, but I later found that she lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood.

Out of the more than 100,000 negatives I have in the collection, about 20-30,000 negatives were still in rolls, undeveloped from the 1960's-1970's. I have been successfully developing these rolls. I must say, it's very exciting for me. Most of her negatives that were developed in sleeves have the date and location penciled in French (she had poor penmanship).

I found her name written with pencil on a photo-lab envelope. I decided to 'Google' her about a year after I purchased these only to find her obituary placed the day before my search. She passed only a couple of days before that inquiry on her.

I wanted to meet her in person well before I found her obituary but, the auction house had stated she was ill, so I didn't want to bother her. So many questions would have been answered if I had.

Unfolding the mystery of Vivian Maier

The original flickr discussion