Oh, to realize how close Maier’s work came to being lost forever. A story in itself.
But her pictures - the people and the moments caught forever in her Rolleiflex - exquisite! Maier knew instinctively not only what would work, but what counts. What would show the viewer the world her subjects lived in, and what illuminates her subjects in their worlds. And that she was able to do so for utter strangers to her world, well, there’s genius for you.
Then you really need to check out the wonderful documentary Finding Vivian Maier, which goes into great depth about the discovery of this incredible material (decades after being shot) and the treasure hunt involved in deciphering her past, discovering her relationships, and decrypting her as both an artist and a person from the things that she shot. One of the best films I’ve seen this year.
Wow. Thanks so much for this link. What amazing photos. I have only begun to look but the self-portraits are incredible, as is her story. The man who made the collections, Maloof, is an interesting person I’d like to know more about. The film MovieMogul mentions is apparently a subject of some controversy as is Maloof; see here for example. (One person says the movie isn’t about Maier but Maloof.) I am glad to have been introduced to this whole story.
I only know who she is (was) because of a story by Jay Shefsky on public television in Chicago. The photos featured in that story were very cool, and I don’t know anything about photography.
I was thinking about starting this thread. I ran across a story about Vivian Maier on the BBC website this morning and got lost on the website for about an hour. Great stuff.
Thanks for the feedback - if I have turned even one more person on to Maier’s work, I’ve done something good today.
I wonder how she felt when her life’s work was auctioned off . . . and, as far as she knew, lost to the void. I’ll have to check the timing; it might have happened when she was already in decline physically (and possibly mentally, too) after her head injury. In other words, she may not have even known about it. A blessing if it happened that way.
At the risk of showing my lack of breadth about photography, a lot of Maier’s shots really remind me of Diane Arbus. Any of these three - one, two, three - could be Arbus. And so could many, many more.
ETA: To be clear, I am not meaning to detract from either.
I haven’t read the criticisms but I saw the film a few weeks ago and it’s 95% Vivian and 5% Maloof and that 5% is well justified. How can he not mention his own incredible discovery and journey to discover who she was? If he hadn’t bought those negatives, they’d probably in a landfill now and no one would ever have heard of Vivian. If they want a documentary that’s 100% Vivian, they can make their own damn documentary, without mentioning who discovered her work and brought it to the public via Flickr. Idiots.
Yes, she’s amazing. Thank you Maloof for buying that storage locker full of old junk, and seeing the jewel light shining from it, and doing something about it.
Btw, for those in Chicago, the movie is still playing at odd times and days at the Wilmette Theater and the Glen Arts. Some days it’s not playing at one or the other (or both), and the days it is playing the times seem to be different every day, and usually only once a day. I’m going off the showtimes at IMDB. I’d call the theater(s) to make absolutely sure of the days and times.
It’s been skipping from theater to theater for months. I saw it at The Logan in May and it it had been playing at the Landmark for weeks before that. I’m glad it’s still hanging around. Even though it’s because she and Maloof are Chicago artists, it’s still rare for any movie, let alone an art house film, let alone a documentary, to play continuously for several months.
Her work was auctioned off in 2007. Boxes and boxes of it sold for peanuts because nobody knew. Vivian was dedicated and prolific, with no apparent plan or intention to ever sell any of it. It’s not clear that she even showed most of her work to anybody.
One of the buyers at the auction was a callow youth named John Maloof who was looking to put together a historical retrospective on Chicago. He was bright enough to realize what he had stumbled upon, and immediately started to put the images online. He also sought and bought as much of Vivian’s work as he could from the other buyers in the auction. He didn’t get them all.
Vivian died in April, 2009, and her photos started to gain traction on the internet in October, 2009 thanks to Maloof’s efforts. So she probably knew that Maloof had discovered her, but did not live to see her work explode. In early 2010 collectors entered the picture, and by late 2010 exhibitions were being mounted.
Working as a nanny in Chicago, she took bazillions of photos over the years. Working without training, artifice or art, she was just a naturally gifted photographer who knew how to take evocative photos before anyone else even knew how to look at them.
Do you think there was some sort of plan to make money off of her work without having to share it? Her work was going to remain unseen as long as she was alive. She was very secretive and had few friends. The reason her storage lockers (and the negatives in them) went to auction is that, near the end of her life, Vivian Maier ended up in a hospital and couldn’t pay the storage rental fee.
Maloof didn’t know what he had at first - it took him a couple of years to get around to looking at the photos, at which point he realized he had something of real artistic merit. His reaction was to start putting them on line so people could see them for free. The first public showing of her work was in a community center.
BTW, I also recommend the movie. It’s as much about the person as about her work. It examines the question of why someone would take 150,000 pictures and not show most of them to anyone. It’s part character study and part detective story.
Evil Captor, I know what you mean. It’s much better to let astonishing art be destroyed or languish in obscurity. Let other people see the art? What bullshit! Make money so you can afford to print the tens of thousands of unseen negatives and develop the thousands of untouched film rolls? Utter crap. It should all be thrown away! What a dick that guy is.
For those not familiar with Henry Darger, look for a documentary called In the Realms of the Unreal. It’s not the greatest documentary, but the subject matter is so fascinating that you won’t mind.
