Vivian Maier

[Gaetan Cormier]

Altough she died in 2009, you will hear about Vivian Maier more and more in the photography community:

Maier's photographic legacy, in the form of some 100,000 negatives — a large portion in the form of undeveloped rolls — was discovered by 26-year-old real estate agent John Maloof, also president of the Jefferson Park Historical Society in Chicago.

While working on a book about the Chicago neighborhood of Portage Park, Maloof bought 30,000 prints and negatives from an auction house that had acquired the photographs from a storage locker that had been sold off when Maier was no longer able to pay her fees. After purchasing the first collection of Maier photographs in 2007, Maloof acquired the rest from another buyer at the same auction. Maloof discovered Maier's name at an early stage of his discovery, but was unable to find out more about her until just after her death, when he found an obituary notice in the Chicago Tribune.

In 2009, Maloof started to post some of Maier's photographs on a blog and has announced his intention to publish a book about Maier's life and photography. The book is scheduled to be released in fall 2011, and a feature-length documentary film about Maier and Maloof's discovery of her work, titled Finding Vivian Maier, is scheduled for release in 2012.

Find out more along with superb street photos of Vivian Maier on Maloof's blog:
Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work

Enjoy!

[casil403]

Wow...interesting and her work is quite stark and beautiful...thanks for sharing Gaetan!

[Bambi]

what an interesting story. it makes you wonder how many undiscovered photography talents there are out there.

[Iguanasan]

It definitely gives you an interesting glimpse into the street life that she walked through every day, unfortunately, I just found it depressing :(

[mbrager]

Gaetan, thanks for sharing the information. The story is fascinating. Ms. Maier seems to have taken thousands of rolls of film without developing them, and in several different countries. The man who bought the collection is working on developing the film, and has published some of the photos on a blog. The photos are interesting, well done, well exposed. Quite a story for photographers... Mike