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| Vivian Maier - self portrait |
Have you heard of her? Well, I hadn't. She was actually working as a nanny and housekeeper for about 40 years in the Chicago area but from her work was also clearly an amazing street photographer. Even more amazing in the documentary is that a lot of the families she worked for didn't even know she took photos!
She never printed or showed her photographs to anyone ... I don't know much about photography, but I can see the strength in her work - so raw, capturing the essence of the people or subject. I can't believe you could spend a lifetime taking so many fabulous photographs and then just keep them to yourself. What's even more bizarre is that she would have never been discovered if it wasn't for one particular collector who purchased her negatives and has brought her life and work into the public arena.
Her negatives were purchased by a few collectors but things really got interesting when collector John Maloof, put some of her negatives on his blog and also on flickr ... they went viral! He realised he had something really special and held an exhibition of her work in Chicago which was the most well received exhibition by any artist in the history of the gallery's exhibitions.
It is a truly amazing story which I feel must be credited entirely to the relentless work and determination by John Maloof. Without his dedication to reconstructing this woman's life and work, we would never know of her amazing talent.
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| There's a lot of websites you can read to learn more about her story ... here's just one of them... Finding Vivian Maier Enjoy and be inspired ~ |
