What is the biography of Vivian Maier?
Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier, (born February 1, 1926, Bronx, New York, U.S.—died April 20, 2009, Oak Park, Illinois), American amateur street photographer who lived her life in obscurity as a nanny and caregiver in the suburbs of Chicago while producing an expansive body of photographic work that became a media sensation in late 2010,...
Where can I see Vivian Maier's work?
Vivian Maier – Street Photographer, May–August 2018, WestLicht, Vienna, Austria. Vivian Maier: The Color Work, November 15, 2018 – March 2, 2019, Howard Greenberg Gallery. Vivian Maier - Works in Color, June 1, 2020 - September 13, 2020, FOAM Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Where did Charles and Vivian live in the 1940s?
In 1935, Vivian and her mother were living in Saint-Julien-en-Champsaur; three years later, they returned to New York. In the 1940 Census, Charles, Maria, Vivian and Charles Jr were listed as living in New York, where the father worked as a steam engineer.
Where did Vivian Maier grow up?
Maier was born in the United States to an Austrian father and a French mother. She spent much of her childhood in France and likely became interested in photography at an early age.
Was Vivian Maier French?
An American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. Having picked up photography just two years earlier, she would comb the streets of the Big Apple refining her artistic craft.
When was Vivian Maier born?
February 1, 1926Vivian Maier / Date of birth
How much does a Vivian Maier photo cost?
Each image, printed posthumously from original negatives, will be available to prospective collectors, with prices ranging from $5,000 to $6,500. It is a keenly anticipated sale. For many art collectors, the Vivian Maier story is renowned—not least because of the Oscar-nominated feature film about her life.
What is the best Vivian Maier book?
Vivian Maier: Out of the ShadowsVivian Maier / BooksPresenting her breathtaking photographs alongside interviews with those who knew her best, this volume is the first attempt to put Vivian Maier's work in context and create a moving portrait of her as an artist. ... Google Books
How do I take a picture like Vivian Maier?
How to Shoot Like Vivian MaierArchive your work. The fact that Maier seemed to keep every negative she ever shot is crucial. ... Show people your world. ... Shoot low. ... Shoot black & white. ... But don't be afraid to experiment with colour. ... Shoot one and move on. ... Shoot for pleasure. ... Keep shooting.More items...•
What film stock did Vivian Maier use?
Ektachrome filmWhich film did Vivan Maier use? Mostly Kodak Tri-X and Ektachrome film.
Where is Vivian Maier's work displayed?
Vivian Maier at Arlington Museum of Art.
Why did John Maloof go to the auction?
In 2007, historian John Maloof needed photographs for a book he was working on about the Portage Park neighborhood in Chicago, so he went to a storage locker auction and for $380 bought the biggest box of undeveloped negatives he could find.
How do I get a Vivian Maier?
Vivian Maier photographs are available for purchase through the Howard Greenberg Gallery in New York. For further information please contact the gallery.
Which photographer was a muckraker?
Jacob August RiisJacob Riis, in full Jacob August Riis, (born May 3, 1849, Ribe, Denmark—died May 26, 1914, Barre, Massachusetts, U.S.), American newspaper reporter, social reformer, and photographer who, with his book How the Other Half Lives (1890), shocked the conscience of his readers with factual descriptions of slum conditions in ...
What is urban street photography?
Focusing on the study of objects and elements in urban environments, urban photography usually emphasises the surroundings and uses them to make statements about time and place. People are not always included in the images, unlike in street photography.
What photographer is known for his study of value and the zone system?
The Zone System is a photographic technique for determining optimal film exposure and development, formulated by Ansel Adams and Fred Archer.
Did Vivian Maier have children?
Maier worked as a governess until the mid-1990s, never marrying or having children of her own.
Where did Vivian Maier live?
An American of French and Austro-Hungarian extraction, Vivian bounced between Europe and the United States before coming back to New York City in 1951. Having picked up photography just two years earlier, she would comb the streets of the Big Apple refining her artistic craft. By 1956 Vivian left the East Coast for Chicago, where she’d spend most of the rest of her life working as a caregiver. In her leisure Vivian would shoot photos that she zealously hid from the eyes of others. Taking snapshots into the late 1990′s, Maier would leave behind a body of work comprising over 100,000 negatives. Additionally Vivian’s passion for documenting extended to a series of homemade documentary films and audio recordings.
Where was Maier born?
Although born in the U.S., it was in France that Maier spent most of her youth. Maier returned to the U.S. in 1951 where she took up work as a nanny and care-giver for the rest of her life. In her leisure however, Maier had begun to venture into the art of photography.
What camera did Vivian Maier use?
Bottom: Maier’s undeveloped film. It was around this time that Maier decided to switch to color photography, shooting on mostly Kodak Ektachrome 35mm film, using a Leica IIIc, and various German SLR cameras.
How many negatives did Vivian Maier take?
Taking snapshots into the late 1990′s, Maier would leave behind a body of work comprising over 100,000 negatives.
Why did Vivian Maier auction off her lockers?
Unbeknownst to them, one of Vivian’s storage lockers was auctioned off due to delinquent payments.
What camera did Vivian have?
Her camera was a modest Kodak Brownie box camera, an amateur camera with only one shutter speed, no focus control, and no aperture dial. The viewer screen is tiny, and for the controlled landscape or portrait artist, it would arguably impose a wedge in between Vivian and her intentions due to its inaccuracy.
Why did Maier travel alone?
Maier’s photos also betray an affinity for the poor, arguably because of an emotional kinship she felt with those struggling to get by. Her thirst to be cultured led her around the globe. At this point we know of trips to Canada in 1951 and 1955, in 1957 to South America, in 1959 to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, in 1960 to Florida, in 1965 she’d travel to the Caribbean Islands, and so on. It is to be noted that she traveled alone and gravitated toward the less fortunate in society.
Who is Vivian Maier?
(Show more) Vivian Maier, (born February 1, 1926, Bronx, New York, U.S.—died April 20, 2009, Oak Park, Illinois), American amateur street photographer who lived her life in obscurity as a nanny and caregiver in the suburbs of Chicago while producing an expansive body of photographic work that became a media sensation in ...
Where did Maier live?
Maier moved to Highland Park, a northern suburb of Chicago, to accept a job as a nanny for the Gensburg family, with whom she stayed until the early 1970s. By the time she began traversing and photographing the streets of Chicago, she was using a Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex camera. Britannica Quiz. Name That Artist.
What was the subject of the Maier photographs?
Maier photographed the urban human landscape over the course of three decades. Her preferred subjects were children, the poor, the marginalized, and the elderly, some of them aware of her and some not. She also made a number of self-portraits. She worked in a black-and-white documentary style until the early 1970s, when she took up colour and also began to adopt a more abstract approach.
What did Maier do with her artifacts?
She chose to keep her work to herself. In addition to her tens of thousands of photographic materials, Maier collected found objects throughout her life and saved an extraordinarily vast trove of belongings in the two storage lockers she rented. Those artifacts of her life were used to help reconstruct her biography.
Was Maier's work processed or printed?
Given that virtually none of the work by Maier that is being published and exhibited was processed or printed by the artist herself, one of the critical questions is of her personal aesthetic and artistic vision. Maier is regarded by many to have had a highly skilled eye and an acute photographic sense.
Did Maier have any friends?
Though contradictory biographical details appear in sources that tell her story, it is clear from interviews with her employers and their children that she was an intensely private person with few, if any, friends. She chose to keep her work to herself. In addition to her tens of thousands of photographic materials, Maier collected found objects throughout her life and saved an extraordinarily vast trove of belongings in the two storage lockers she rented. Those artifactsof her life were used to help reconstruct her biography.
Who is Vivian Maier?
Vivian Dorothy Maier was born in New York to a French mother, Maria Jaussaud Justin, and an Austrian father, Charles (Wilhelm) Maier . Her mother (like her grandmother) worked as a residential servant while her father was a steam engineer. Maier is known to have had one older brother, Karl, from whom she is thought to have been estranged throughout her life. One year before Vivian was born, Karl was placed briefly in the Heckscher Foundation Children's Home before being put in the care of his paternal grandparents. Karl had been removed from his parents' charge due to "constant conflict" and it is known that he suffered mental health issues and was imprisoned several times throughout his lifetime.
How was Maier discovered?
Maier was discovered after a vast cache of her unprinted works was acquired by third parties through auction. Given that she has had no say in how her images have been selected or represented in public, the posthumous exhibition and publication of her work raises complex questions about the ethics of artistic reputation building. Indeed, Maier's legend has been built in her absence by curators who have profited financially (and lawfully) from an artist who showed little or no will to sell or exhibit her work, and who died in poverty.
What is Maier's work?
Maier has been likened to the top Street Photographers in the way her work explores the relationship between the image taker and their urban subject. It is known, however, that Maier took special pride in her working-class roots and, as someone who earned her keep as a domestic help, she shared a special empathy with many of her subjects. This bond is revealed time and again in the faces of those honorable subjects who filled her sympathetic viewfinder.#N#Maier was unique amongst Street Photographers in the way she was able to interact with children, be they posing for portraits or caught in spontaneous moments of play. Her affinity with a child's worldview (most of her photographs of children are shot from the eye-level of the child) no doubt stemmed from her affection for children which was fostered in her "day job" (as a nanny).#N#Known primarily for her street portraits, Maier proved highly adaptable and she possessed a rare ability to pick out patterns between human figures and their architectural surroundings. It would be too easy to dismiss her as an accomplished amateur given her ability to identify compositional possibilities using light and shadow, surface reflections and considered points of view. Indeed, her archive demonstrates that Maier was a learned and adept urban photographer even though she received no formal training.#N#In her later years, Maier turned exclusively to color photography, and having done so, some commentators have suggested she unwittingly predicted the shift in attitude that allowed color photography to be considered artistically credible. On a personal level, the move away from her monochromatic phase saw Maier replace the human figure with color as the "protagonist" in her images. For this reason, her mature works allow for more abstract formal elements to dominate her frame.#N#Maier was discovered after a vast cache of her unprinted works was acquired by third parties through auction. Given that she has had no say in how her images have been selected or represented in public, the posthumous exhibition and publication of her work raises complex questions about the ethics of artistic reputation building. Indeed, Maier's legend has been built in her absence by curators who have profited financially (and lawfully) from an artist who showed little or no will to sell or exhibit her work, and who died in poverty.
What is the unique thing about Maier?
Maier was unique amongst Street Photographers in the way she was able to interact with children, be they posing for portraits or caught in spontaneous moments of play. Her affinity with a child's worldview (most of her photographs of children are shot from the eye-level of the child) no doubt stemmed from her affection for children which was fostered in her "day job" (as a nanny).
Why did Maier turn to color photography?
On a personal level, the move away from her monochromatic phase saw Mai er replace the human figure with color as the "protagonist" in her images. For this reason, her mature works allow for more abstract formal elements to dominate her frame.
Why is Maier so fond of the poor?
Collector John Maloof argues that Maier's apparent "affinity for the poor" is likely due to "an emotional kinship she felt with those struggling to get by". One of Maier's former employers, Karen Usiskin, notes, meanwhile, that "she had a real identity with being a poor person. That was something that she was proud of".
What is the significance of Maier's photographs?
A notable characteristic of Maier's photographs is her ability to enter into the psychological space of children, whether they are posing for a portrait at a close distance, or being captured in moments of play in the city streets. In this way, Maier's work bears a strong resemblance to that of Helen Levitt, who is known for her documentary photographs of community street life, particularly of children playing in their neighborhoods.#N#While many of Maier's photographs of adults indicate no awareness of her presence on the part of her subjects (or if they do register her presence, it is usually with a look of distrust or disdain), her photographs of children frequently involve direct eye contact and expressions of acceptance, bordering on curiosity, on the faces of the young subjects. Here, Maier has captured a fleeting, yet intimate, moment of connection, photographing a boy who is so interested in her presence that he presses his nose against the glass to peer at her more intensely. Moreover, much of Maier's oeuvre seems to indicate the ongoing perspective of the child's point of view, with her photographs of children being shot frontally, at their eye level, and with many of her photograph of adults being shot from below, as if from a child's vantage point.
Who is Vivian Maier?
After further sleuthing, he finally managed to give the anonymous photographer an identity: she was a former professional carer named Vivian Maier, who had since died, and who had kept her images – and her remarkable talent – all but hidden from everyone she knew.
What is Maier's obsession with self portraits?
Self-portraits are one of Maier’s most tantalising obsessions. As well as her fondness for capturing faintly ghoulish pictures of dismembered mannequins, Maier clearly enjoyed turning her lens on her own body, catching herself if by accident in a mirror or shop window (though you sense it’s never accidental) or posing in a bathroom, while having her hair cut, silhouetted against a garden fence – anywhere that could generate an interesting image.
What would happen if Maier had not kept her pictures secret?
Say if she’d managed to find the money to get her pictures properly printed, and the art-world connections to get them exhibited, would she have been taken seriously? Bannos reports that Maier told a friend that “if she had not kept her images secret, people would have stolen or misused them”. Given what happened after she died, that hardly seems paranoid.
What camera did Maier use to photograph?
He looks like the most average of average Joes, were it not for the luscious array of sandwiches and fruit in a cardboard shoebox next to him. While for these images Maier was using a small, light 35mm Leica camera – much easier to operate than the twin-lens, medium-format Rolleiflex she usually dragged around – shooting in colour seems to have encouraged her to linger on such moments. Though it’s technically a street photograph, this image looks as abundant and beautifully composed as a 17th-Century Dutch still life.
Was Maier a nanny?
One thing does seem inarguable. Instead of regarding her as a nanny who happened to take great snapshots, we should recognise, once and for all, that Maier was the opposite: a photographer who chose to support herself financially, and develop her art, by being paid to look after other people’s children. She made the most of what being a full-time carer could offer – particularly the freedom to roam the streets for hours at a time, kids in tow, documenting whatever or whoever she found on the way. For a roving street photographer, a nanny (that most marginal and unthreatening of roles) was clearly a useful disguise.
Is Maier harder to pin down?
However much more is discovered about Maier – we are, perhaps, still only starting to get to grips with her – perhaps the truth is that she is harder to pin down, far more elusive, than we have yet realised. “There’s no need to compare her to anyone else,” says Van Dijk. “She is very much herself.”.
Did Maier have an interest in postcards?
Van Dijk points out that Maier maintained a correspondence with a photography studio in France, and discussed printing her images as postcards – evidence that she did have an interest in them being seen by others, at least when she had the money. But ultimately her intentions remain a mystery: “There’s something difficult about that. The world is happy to see the work, but would it have been more respectful to her to leave it where it was? I honestly don’t know.”
Who is Vivian Maier?
Biography: City Life/Street photographer Vivian Maier. Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American amateur street photographer, who was born in New York City, but grew up in France. After returning to the United States, she worked for approximately forty years as a nanny in Chicago, Illinois.
Where was Maier's work discovered?
Maier’s massive body of work would come to light when in 2007 her work was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side .
How many photographs did Vivian take?
During those years, she took more than 100,000 photographs, primarily of people and cityscapes in Chicago, although she traveled and photographed worldwide. Additionally Vivian’s passion for documenting extended to a series of homemade documentary films and audio recordings.
What is the mystery of Vivian Maier?
Vivian Maier’s staggering body of work was discovered after her death, and the mystery she left behind is a significant part of her story’s magnetism. Back when she was alive, she roamed the streets of New York and Chicago as an unknown photographer, taking selfies in storefront reflections as well as ...
Where did Maier work?
The Magic Maker. When she first moved to New York, Maier worked in a sweatshop. But soon, she realized she needed to find a new line of work. Her passion for photography required room to breathe, free time, and access to the bustling streets.
How many negatives did Maier have?
Over the course of her life, she amassed over 100,000 negatives and countless rolls of film.
What was Vivian Maier's first camera?
Despite her reluctance to be seen, she certainly became one of her greatest subjects. Vivian Maier’s first camera was a Kodak Brownie. It was around 1949 and she lived with her mother in France.
What was Maier's job?
She collected so many newspapers that she barely had space to walk around. And it wasn’t just newspapers. Maier also made endless audio recordings and home videos . There were also intentionally folded notes and scraps of paper slipped into every nook and cranny imaginable.
Why do we look at Maier's photos?
To look at her photos is to attempt to see what she saw, but perhaps even more so, it is to share in a life so insular and unique, that we feel a part of something hallowed —something worth remembering.
When did Maier die?
By the time Maloof fully understood Maier’s talent, she was nearing death, and in 2009, she passed. Moreover, to Maloof’s dismay, no major art institution wanted to recognize the caliber of her work. And so, he decided to take matters into his own hands and posted a collection of her work on the photo-sharing website Flickr. The response was absolutely astounding and caused a viral sensation. Soon, the press got a hold of Maier’s story. With its tragic overtones of the unrealized artist, her work fascinated people. And just like that, Maier’s posthumous success took flight.
