- Born:
- February 1, 1926, Bronx, New York, U.S.
- Died:
- April 20, 2009, Oak Park, Illinois (aged 83)
Vivian Maier
-
Who was Vivian Maier?
Vivian Maier (1926–2009) was an American amateur street photographer. Working as a nanny and caregiver in Chicago's suburbs, she spent three decades capturing the urban human landscape, particularly children, the poor, and the elderly, in a black-and-white documentary style.
Maier's extensive work remained hidden until 2007, when a real estate agent, John Maloof, purchased a box of her never-printed negatives at auction. This discovery led to a sensation as her photographs and story emerged.
Intensely private, Maier kept her work to herself. Her collection included tens of thousands of photographic materials and a vast trove of found objects, which helped reconstruct her biography. Critics have compared her skilled eye and photographic sense to those of Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus.
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What type of photography is Vivian Maier known for?
Vivian Maier is known for her work as an American amateur street photographer. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Maier captured the urban human landscape in a black-and-white documentary style, turning to color and abstraction in the 1970s. Her subjects included children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly, whom she photographed in cities like New York and Chicago. She also created self-portraits. Maier's work has been compared to that of photographers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus.
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How were Vivian Maier's photographs discovered?
Vivian Maier's photographs were discovered in 2007 when John Maloof, a Chicago real estate agent, purchased a box of her undeveloped film and negatives for $400 at an auction house. The auction included items from a storage unit that Maier had rented but failed to pay for. Her belongings were split into several lots and sold to multiple buyers. Maloof acquired about 100,000 negatives, over 3,000 prints, hundreds of rolls of film, home movies, and audio interviews. Jeffrey Goldstein and Ron Slattery also acquired significant portions of Maier’s work, raising legal and ethical questions about the use and analysis of her work.
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What subjects did Vivian Maier usually photograph?
Vivian Maier, an American street photographer, captured the urban human landscape for three decades. Maier's photography subjects included children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly, some aware of her presence and some not. She also created self-portraits. Until the early 1970s, Maier worked in a black-and-white documentary style, later transitioning to color and a more abstract approach.
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Why is Vivian Maier sometimes called a 'street photographer'?
Vivian Maier is often called a "street photographer" because she photographed the urban human landscape for three decades, capturing everyday life in public places. Maier's subjects included children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly, and she captured many of these images candidly. Street photographers isolate and capture moments that might otherwise go unnoticed. Maier worked in a black-and-white documentary style until the early 1970s, later adopting color and a more abstract approach.
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How has Vivian Maier’s work influenced photography today?
Vivian Maier, a street photographer who lived in obscurity as a nanny, has had a notable influence on photography since her work was discovered in 2007.
Maier's work, which includes black-and-white documentary-style photos and later color and more abstract images, has drawn comparisons to photographers like Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus. Maier's photographs consist of urban landscapes and often feature children, the poor, and the marginalized.
Exhibitions of her work have traveled to cities throughout the United States, Canada, China, and many European countries, introducing her unique vision to a global audience.
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Vivian Maier (born February 1, 1926, Bronx, New York, U.S.—died April 20, 2009, Oak Park, Illinois) was an American amateur street photographer who lived her life in obscurity as a nanny and caregiver in the suburbs of Chicago while producing an expansive body of photographic work that became a media sensation in late 2010, nearly two years after her death. Discovered in 2007, a cache of Maier’s never-printed negatives, undeveloped rolls of film, and unedited movies fascinated the public as her story unfolded.
Maier was born in the United States to an Austrian father and a French mother. She spent much of her childhood in France and likely became interested in photography at an early age. Her first photos were taken in France in the late 1940s with a Kodak Brownie camera. She returned to the United States in 1951, first living in New York City and in 1956 moving near Chicago, where she spent the rest of her life. Maier moved to Highland Park, a northern suburb of Chicago, to accept a job as a nanny for the Gensburg family, with whom she stayed until the early 1970s. By the time she began traversing and photographing the streets of Chicago, she was using a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera.
Maier photographed the urban human landscape over the course of three decades. Her preferred subjects were children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly, some of them aware of her and some not. She also made a number of self-portraits. She worked in a black-and-white documentary style until the early 1970s, when she took up color and also began to adopt a more abstract approach.
Though contradictory biographical details appear in sources that tell her story, it is clear from interviews with her employers and their children that she was an intensely private person with few, if any, friends. She chose to keep her work to herself. In addition to her tens of thousands of photographic materials, Maier collected found objects throughout her life and saved an extraordinarily vast trove of belongings in the two storage lockers she rented. Those artifacts of her life were used to help reconstruct her biography.
In 2007 John Maloof, a real estate agent in Chicago, bought a box of undeveloped rolls of film and negatives for $400 at an auction house. The box was auctioned off as part of a group of items that had been collected from a storage unit sold for non-payment. Because the contents of the unit were split into several lots, Maier’s belongings were sold to more than one buyer. Three buyers in particular amassed the bulk of Maier’s work: Maloof, with about 100,000 negatives, more than 3,000 prints, hundreds of rolls of film, home movies, and audio interviews; Jeffrey Goldstein, with about 19,000 negatives, 1,000 prints, 30 homemade movies, and some slides; and Ron Slattery, who acquired more than 1,000 rolls of film at the auction. The privatization of her materials in this way raised legal, academic, and ethical questions about the posthumous use, profit from, and analysis of her work. Given that virtually none of the work by Maier that is being published and exhibited was processed or printed by the artist herself, one of the critical questions is of her personal aesthetic and artistic vision.
Maier is regarded by many to have had a highly skilled eye and an acute photographic sense. Critics have drawn comparisons between her work and that of 20th-century photographers such as Robert Frank, Garry Winogrand, and Diane Arbus. Exhibitions of the Maloof and Goldstein collections have traveled to cities throughout the United States and to Canada, China, and many European countries.