Her works saw the light of the day
by accident. Now, after 60 years we get to know the amazing, black
and white street photographs by Vivian Maier. We don't know a lot
about the artist herself though. She was private and very misterious.
She couldn't afford to develop most of her photos, so a great
majority of the plates waited for their moment till 2007, when they
were discovered on a flea market.
Maier was born in 1926 in New
York. She spent her childhood in France and came back to United
States in 1951. There she stayed and worked a nanny till the end of
her life. She never learned photography and didn't live off it.
Probably none of at-the-time most famous photographers were
inspiration for her. Among her stuff no photography album was found.
Though she was an amateur, she took photography very seriously. She
had a camera always with her. Most of her photos come from streets of
New York and Chicago, but there are also some from Canada, India,
Egypt and Yemen.
Vivian's
photos create an unusual portrait of american society of the 50's,
60's and 70's, showing its ethnic, racial and class divisions. The
artist does not discriminate: objects of her pictures are elegant
women, workers, homeless people and children. Even though Maier was
perceived as lukewarm, she photographed people from a short distance
not breaching their privacy. She saved unique extracts of reality,
gently penetrating intimate situations. Maier inspired trust and
captured people in their natural poses, presenting unfattered
gestures and emotions. We often hear about Maier's photographies as
one of the best examples of american street photography.
Self-portaits play an important
role in Maier's work. They're usually author's reflections in
mirrors, store windows etc. The pictures are accompanied by some play
with lights and outstanding frames adding mystery to the artist's
figure. Her presence is often marked by the shadow visible in the
picture. Experiments with her own presence by emphisizing the
importance of it or simply extinghuishing it, changing identities,
are an inherent part of both Vivian's work and her private life. She
didn't publish her photos. This fact helps to understand Maier's
creative attitude. She collected newspaper clippings, carefully
observing the political situation in the country. On the other hand
she manipulated facts concerning her past and her future, she gave
fake names. I think the best description of this controversial person
would be an invisible observer who tried to process and save the
greatest possible amount of information.
Vivian's figure emerging from
photographs, recordings and friends' descriptions is undoubtedly
fascinating. This snippy and private person didn't let anyone get
closer. For us she will stay very mysteorius person. Photos had never
been described by a commentary or a note. Everything we know about
the photographer is a compound of memoirs and conjectures.
Sources:
Presentation is short and to the point, but very pleasant to read. On the other hand it's not very easy to comment, because we need somewhere to start and with that kind of short bio it's even more difficult. I must say I have never heard about Vivian Maier before (not that I'm into photography, but I know few more famous personas). The first association I had, when I saw those pictures, were with Slenderman or "ghost in the pictures", but all in all I like the whole idea of photograoher in the picture.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to know something more about her you should try:
Deletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt2714900/
Article very pleasant to have read. Even out of curiosity, I went to see who this person is. As I looked at her picture, it could be read that were secretive person. I've always admired photographers capture the life of the people in the pictures, not in commercial and somewhere standing aside as an observer of everything. Certainly not without reason was a mysterious as it is laid down. With great pleasure, I see her more pictures. Well, it's probably enough about this article.
ReplyDeleteStrange person indeed but she took great pictures without any photographic background.
DeleteI agree with you, these pictures have "something" in itself. May we lived to see the whole of her work, which has not yet been shown.
DeleteI hope we will see more of them but man responsible for photos for sure know what he's doing. He probably will be showing new parts by time.
DeleteI have never heard about this woman, so it's nice to see something new. The presentation is pleasant to read but difficult to comment. In my opinion you should put more photos in the presentstion, especially those from vivianmaier.com.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but you can watch vivianmaier.com for free. She made a lot of photos.
DeleteI have read some articles about Vivian and for me she was pretty amazing person. In my opinion her pictures are pretty gorgeous and that is really sad when someone with such talent hasn’t opportunity to share his\her works. Fortunately her photos were discovered on a flea market what gives us an opportunity to discover the unknown and shows a little different portrait of American society. Thank you @Marek for bringing that talented photographer closer for us!
ReplyDeleteYes its strange and interesting that she doesnt showed her pictures another people.
DeleteNo, it is not strange. I just did not picture the audience, but for myself, so with passion.
DeleteMaybe you have right. On reflection I am also making photos for myself.
DeleteRalery for someone, it's not my job.. just passion!
Very interesting article. It encouraged me to look for other information about Vivian. Thank you! :)
ReplyDeleteThere are quite a lot of unnoticed artists who were great in the things they did, no matter if it was a painting, a song or a sculpture etc. To these days we keep finding out new talents from the past who are (in most cases) dead, unfortunately, honored after their death. The best example of such a situation (but not dead yet) is a character taking main role in the movie "Searching for Sugarman" which I totally recommend to all of you. The most disappointing thing for me is the fact that some of people are unable to distinguish real piece of art from a "5 minute fame crap" or even total disaster. Unfortunately people who are into that low quality art aren't conscious of that and seems quite happy, whereas real masterpiece's creators are suffering from low publicity, support and proper attention even though they occur geniuses sometimes... Pity it is.
ReplyDeleteThere is a movie about Vivian:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.imdb.com/title/tt3252208/
Anyone has seen it?
Havent seen it but I heard its pretty good and show all the story.
DeleteShe started to be famous because this movie.
I have never heard of Vivian before, but she seems to be a pure hipster culture legend :) The photos are cool, and I admire the story behind them.
ReplyDeleteHaha probably yes! Critics still argue if shes photo genius or not.
DeleteI read about the fantastic discovery of Vivan Maier's photos recently, it's great that we still have things like that to discover in this era of digitalization.
ReplyDeleteA nice topic and interesting presentation, thanks!
Yes, funny what interesting things people still can find in the shed or at the attic. Like this collection of cars:
Deletehttp://www.artcurial.com/en/departments/classic_and_racing_cars/index.asp
Never heard about her but this six photos...hmm I'm not sure how to say this, there is something strange in them. A bit scary to be honest, when I look at them I have strange feeling that something bad will happen.
ReplyDeleteFrom your article I can see that she was a very interesting persons that loved photography very much, I think that is the reason why her work was so good
I chose six photos of her which I like. She made many many more. Some fantastic portraits but for sure you can call it strange and maybe even scary.
DeleteCompletely not my topic so it’s so hard to say something new or really interesting. My knowledge about photographers after current week is a little more better (pertain to second presentation about photo matter). Thanks for likeable presentation. Maybe next time I will be more helpful in this case on the reply side…
ReplyDeleteHope that some of photos got your interest. :)
DeleteWhile I have no knowledge about photography artists, those six photos you've put in your article got me interested. I've looked through all galleries at http://www.vivianmaier.com/, and It's amazing. Especially those "street" albums, each and every is really bueatiful. It was pleasure to watch them, same with reading your article. Regards.
ReplyDeleteYes I chose this six carefully. I wanted you to interest a little Vivian without showing everything.
DeleteReally nice bio. I never heard of this woman. Her pictures are outstanding!
ReplyDeleteThere is something magical in her works. The streets on her photos are on the other continent and 50 years ago but somehow I feel like I know them through this photos.
On the other hand are a lot of compositions in this photos I would consider quite modern and the works are 50 years old! Unbeliveable!
Thank you for introducing this artist to us.
Amazing person and funny that she took most of her photographs on the walks with kids as a nanny.
DeleteI've never heard of this artist before but I think that her work is very impressive! I like that mysterious touch to the photography. By watching her photos you can almost feel like you're the one taking them, because of that shadow which is marking the photograph's undeniable presence. I believe that you don't have to be a skilled photographer nor have the top camera to take captivating photos. All you need is to put passion in it and people will probably feel it.
ReplyDeleteYes but good old camera also did it job. It would be hard to make photos like this with f ex phone camera.
DeleteHey, I've never heard of that woman but actually this is some kind of phenomenon which world needs. Sometimes it happens that a random person becomes a really famous just by accident and we need this. The world needs a few types o hereos. I don't really find this exciting, sorry... The most interesting fact about her photos is the fact there were discovered many many years after and that's it. I feel bad to say that haha, it's the first time I did this on konwersatorium i guess ... :-((( But the article was cool tho. Best Regards
ReplyDeleteI've encountered Vivian Maier before somewhere on the internet or when i was researching black and white street photography in which i am interested. I also watched a movie about her, and it was inspiring. My thoughts on that was she was from a niche of photographers that started all that, and by that i mean she was innovative and was looking for more in her photography. For long time she wasn't considered herself as professional photographer yet she kept experimenting. Also her private nature is something that i do respect in artists. I think her work also inspired modern black and white photographer Anton Corbjin, who however, doesn't do any street life photography, instead he does portraits, but the way he plays with composition and shadows reminds me of Maier.
ReplyDelete