Once upon a time, there was a single woman named Vivian Maier, who for 50 years was a nanny for households in the greater Chicago area and in her free time traversed the city with a camera and was able to stop time and create amazing stolen moments with the snap of a button. Photographers like Edward Weston, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand all come to mind when viewing the work and Vivian's images easily hold up when held up through the lens of these contemporaries.
The source of these images is truly the remarkable thing and I am sure will someday be coming to a theater near you. Vivian, a loner, was a strong willed individual who (from what has been uncovered from her life’s history) never formally studied photography and was only working from that place in the artist’s heart that knows without a doubt, she must produce. Shooting year after year, creating thousands and thousands of images and undeveloped rolls of film – never entered a contest, had a show, or had any audience to speak of.
Undiscovered, she died recently at the age of 83 and the only reason her work was discovered was due to a 26 year old real estate agent who bought a box of her negatives at a public storage auction. Luckily for all of us, his jaw dropped and he has devoted his life to collecting and curating her life’s work. You can view a video telling the whole story here.
Simply beautiful.
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