Finding Vivian Maier


Street photographer Vivian Maier’s massive body of work was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side in 2007.

I’m so utterly blown away by the intimacy with strangers present in her photographs. This new documentary tells the tale of Maier, an intensely private woman who amassed a huge body of street photography over the years that is only now seeing the light of day. I can’t wait to learn more about this incredible artist and secretive woman through this documentary by John Maloof who purchased the negatives for about $380 not knowing exactly what he’d gotten.

The site dedicated to her recently discovered work describes Vivian as “guarded and private, Vivian could be counted on to feistily preach her own very liberal worldview to anyone who cared to listen, or didn’t. Decidedly unmaterialistic, Vivian would come to amass a group of storage lockers stuffed to the brim with found items, art books, newspaper clippings, home films, as well as political tchotchkes and knick-knacks.

The story of this nanny who has now wowed the world with her photography, and who incidentally recorded some of the most interesting marvels and peculiarities of Urban America in the second half of the twentieth century is seemingly beyond belief.”

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