vivian maier captivates me through each and every photo. ever since i have seen her work i have become a huge fan. i wish she were alive to see how many people she has touched through her work.
the unfettered life in all its strange splendor, the unwitting, unsuspecting subjects, the use of shadow and light, these are the things that burst forth from her photographs.
reading these comments I realize that internet was a mistake. Besides this VM was an extraordinarily talented photographer, surely one of the very few immortal. A million thanks for this!
I saw her photos at tv in Sweden yesterday, it´s amazing, so specially scenes she take photos at. I´m an artist,I paint I don´t take alot of photos myself butI look with an artists eyes.
At 8:24 - three copies of the "Honolulu Star-Bulletin" newspaper. In New York? Chicago? Many mysteries, questions, thoughts are provoked by this marvelous photos. She is destined to be recognized as a master photographer.
Sorry but I don't get it. I mean I do and see and understand the great images she created. I love B&W photography, street photography, minimalist photography and I can see a lot. Is she, in my opinion, so spectacular as everyone claims to sell these images, NO. Greed is driving this push to fame, the desire for NOSTALGIA too. The fact these pictures have never been seen, the way they were discovered, the movie, all the hype, has given the whole thing an aura of quasi Sainthood. There are many photographers from yesterday and today who just blow the socks off her images. Now wait!!!!! don't flame me yet hater, I have an opinion and always have a praise. She has delivered something that many have forgotten simply because it's about making money. She by keeping this to herself has created a following who adhere to the notion, get out and shoot. She did that all her life, created, captured life of her time and recorded events, places, faces and passed on a legacy in film......with no desire for payment or praise, just because she loved it!!!!!!
You make some interesting points, Ken, and there are many who feel she is being exploited and over sold. It's kind of sad because apparently this was something she did for herself, and she never intended the photos to be seen by others.
Your points are valid but I for one am impressed by her work and feel it would be a shame not to have it seen. She did, as best she could, preserve the work in fact, at considerable expense to someone of her limited means. I think she hoped it might be seen at some future date. Samuel Pepys the great diarist never consciously intended his diary to be seen and yet, realizing at some level that it was his greatest achievement, in his old age he chose to preserve it, not sure that it would be read one day but I think likewise hoping someone might find and appreciate it. To have lost either bodies of work would have been a tragic loss.
it's not about the money. it's all about the next generation to study life and street photography. people usually hate street photographer nowadays because everyone has a camera such as phone and digital. people afraid of street photographer to break their privacy. you should ask yourself if someone take a photo of you on street will you let them take it or say no when they ask you nicely for permission? that's why Vivian Maier is a rare. if you look at Herri Catie Beresson, Garry Winogrand, Robert Frank and Vivian Maier, they all have the same thing LOVE and LIFE! People want to see something epic in life, but they forget something that simple life is always beautiful. if you are a famous photographer, people will let you take a photograph, but if you are not famous, they will say no or punch you in the face. that's why if you want to become a star in this period, you have to die. people in this period looking for connection to make money more that your skill. plz beware
+virbius1 Y'know I hear people say that she never intended for her photos to be seen by other people. I just don't believe it. I KNOW people that say they knew her thought she would have been against it, but I don't think so, AND moreover, whatever Vivian felt about her own privacy may not be what she felt about her photography. She wrote to the photo shop in France that she wanted to make more prints with them even if it was across the ocean. Why would she need or want to do that? Is it because of trouble she had with US printers? She mentioned she was a demanding client. Was she so demanding AND a woman of no standing that she wasn't being listened to? She was a nanny that spent thousands and thousands on her photography over the years, is it possible that she always intended to print her work but was hemmed in by being a woman of low standing with little money to produce her work as she would have wished? As the son of a very eccentric mother I recognize some of my mother in Vivian and I think that while she herself craved privacy, she would be delighted that her life's work is being seen and admired by millions. Can you seriously believe she carefully kept these thousands of visions of hers and dragged them with her wherever she went only to keep them for herself? I don't see it.
+Ken Morgan Well Ken, I can safely say this. Not every single shot Vivian made was great. Having said that the incredible precision of her timing, the amazing composition of her best shots and the transcendental nature of some of them lead me to believe that Vivian at her best is the equal of the greatest photographers of her generation. BUT it wouldn't surprise me at all to find that Vivian took more photographs than any other photographer of her era... Not all of those are going to be masterpieces... still, I heard a photography critic say that he's never seen so many quality shots on SO many contact sheets as Vivian produced, from any other photographer in his lifetime. That her work was at first rejected by museums after it was discovered (and probably galleries as well) makes me think that if her work was not produced the way it has, it would never have been brought to light. I say her work should be in as many homes as possible, and Vivian as well known as Ansel Adams.
