Not a lot is known about European-born Vivian Maier other than that she moved to the United States in the 1950s and lived in New York for about five years before moving to Chicago, where she worked for the majority of her life as a nanny. By day she may have been working as a caretaker, but she was also privately becoming a very gifted photographer. She spent countless hours scouring the streets with her Rollei camera, practicing the art of documenting her surrounding, urban environment. It's a shame that her photographs did not come to light before she passed away in 2009. It is also no wonder that in the three short years since her work was discovered, it has quickly gained great esteem. When John Maloof bought a storage locker at auction without knowing its contents, he stumbled upon a treasure chest, a time capsule in the form of thousands of prints and negatives, providing a glimpse of the faces, places, and essence of a bygone era.
Her work has been likened to that of all-stars of the medium, such as Lee Friedlander, Helen Levitt, Garry Winogrand, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. These are some very large boots to fill, but after seeing her photographs one can see that Vivian Maier fits snugly within the cannon. Her carefully composed portraits of people, places and passing moments of everyday, urban life capture everything that we love about street photography.
Vivian Meier's photographs are currently on view at both the
Howard Greenberg and
Steven Kasher galleries in New York.
You can also see and learn more at
www.vivianmaier.com
