Introducing Vivian Maier - Eccentric Loner and 'Selfie' Extraordinaire

In the post I published yesterday I briefly touched on the photographic works of a lady called Vivian Maier. While born in New York Vivian was based in Chicago for most of her life. She was a loner and quite reclusive who had quite an eccentric side, strutting the streets of Chicago in men's boots clutching her camera capturing the essence of Chicago in a former era, and most notably taking selfies all around Chicago. It is this aspect of her works I want to focus on.

(Vivian Maier, self portrait, undated)

She didn't have any known living family or close friends. She didn't marry and never had any children of her own, although she did help to raise three other children in the 1950's. They would later help her when she got older, when she battled serious poverty.

(Vivian Maier, self portrait, 1953)

She was a nanny and an amateur photographer in every sense but she managed to capture some of the most extraordinary and enduring images of her time. During life she was an unknown photographer. Only after she died in 2009 at the age of 83 did she become far more widely known.

It was a man called John Maloof who in 2007 discovered the amateur works of Vivian Maier and introduced her to the world. He was at an auction one day trying to find some illustrative photographs for a book he was writing entitled Chicago's Portage Park. He decided to take a chance and buy a box of undeveloped negatives. The negatives were obtained by the auction as a result of Vivian being unable to pay for their storage. For $380 Maloof obtained thousands of Vivian's pictures. Of the stash he discovered he said:

I thought they were good, and that was kind of it. But the more I learned about photography, the more I thought they were great and, historically, huge.

(Vivian Maier, self portrait, 1971)

He later paid another $100,000 to track down and acquire thousands more negatives and even undeveloped film of hers. His main objective is to find a major museum that is prepared to back the works of Vivian Maier.

(Vivian Maier, self portrait, circa 1950's)

By the time Maloof had begun his research in earnest into Vivian she had died. He discovered that the trove of negatives he had bought had not been shown to anyone. Maloof started to curate her work and is now the chief curator for all her works.

Maloof also set about trying to put Maier in the spotlight. So he hooked up with Bowling For Columbine producer Charlie Siskel and together they directed and made the film Finding Vivian Vivian Maier. The film is a quest in many ways, to discover who Vivian Maier really was and through doing so explores much of her photographic works. Through the film we learn much more not only about the artist but also the woman.

The film asks one of the most important questions of all - was Vivian Maier and artist? I would answer with a resounding yes. This was more than just a hobby for her. And not only did Vivian take photos she told stories with those photos, stories that would never have been told had it not been for her photography.

If you fancy grabbing a flavour of the film Finding Vivian Maier you can check out the trailer here.

Vivian also experimented with and captured move image sequences on 8mm film, with her cine camera. Take a look at some of her film experiments below.

Vivian Maier was a unique, interesting and talented woman. Yes, she lived a simple and reclusive existence, only to struggle financially in later life. She had a very strong creative and artistic side to her. She now quite rightly, albeit posthumously, deserves the title and honour of photo artist. Enjoy her work.

Peace!