Vivian Maier: Street Photographer

Early last week I had the good fortune to have a day off of work and traveled to see the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. It was a perfect day to travel to the city. I drove up to the burbs and parked along the Burlington tracks, and took the Metra in to Union Station. The Cultural Center is a quick 1.5 mile walk from the station, and with all the energy in the Loop, you find yourself arriving there in no time.

 I was taking this photo when security stopped me :) There is no photography allowed at the exhibit. I don't think there is much to see here, so I figured I can get away with posting it.

The show was amazing! For those that don't know, Vivian Maier was an unknown photographer that took street images in Chicago and other urban areas in the 50's and 60's. She had other images, but  this is the predominant focus of her work. She was a nanny working for families in the Chicago area, and was a self taught street photographer.

Her images were sold at an auction and discovered by John Maloof. He has over 100,000 negatives, prints and rolls of undeveloped film by Ms. Maier as well as personal effects like news clippings, hats and her cameras as well.

This is the unfortunate tale of an artist: she was discovered only after she passed away in 2009. The body of work is immense, and with all the negatives, prints and undeveloped film left behind by Ms. Maier it will take years to figure out and decipher her life's work.

A blog that describes the discovery of her work can be found here.

A video about the discovery of the images can be found here:

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7297794n

I found her work to be on par with other great documentary photographers of the day. The fact that she was producing this work, and kept all the images to herself is quite amazing. There is an intimacy she has with her subjects. She took more than a photograph, she revealed  her subject's personality through the images she created.

I would highly urge anyone with the time to see this exhibit before it is finished on April 3rd. The web is a great place to see her work, but to see the prints in person is simply amazing.

A quote by Ms. Maier from the gallery flier sums it up: "We have to make room for other people. It's a wheel- you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else takes their place. There's nothing new under the sun."