THE WORLD THROUGH VIVIAN´S EYES
Vivian Maier was one of the first truly great street photographers ever. A nanny by profession, a very aloof and perhaps lonely person in her private life, she had a secret that almost died along with her in 2009.
Throughout her life she took some 100,000 photos but kept the films dormant, undeveloped. With her German twin lens reflex Rolleiflex camera, the favourite among her cameras, she made thousands of medium format pictures presenting, among others, the 1950s Chicago and New York street scenes that are unsurpassed in their regular beauty.
In 2007, when Maier, old and impoverished lived in the flat bought for her by the grateful children she once helped to raise, a young real estate agent bought the content of a storage locker sold off at an auction when the owner was no longer able to pay the fees. He opened it, he saw it and the rest has become History.
You can read more about Vivian Maier and this amazing discovery on the official page kept by John Maloof, the man who awoke her films to life.
It was she who inspired me to try analogue photography again and it is in her honour that my Rolleiflex is named. By naming her Vivian I hope to get some divine intervention from the Mary Poppins with the camera.
Here are some of her astoundingly beautiful and stunnigly simple works.
Jonny Whitlam Photography
I can see why you are inspired by Vivian Maier.
Stunning images and amazing to think that they might have remained unseen.
Exactly what I thought, too! I cannot even begin to imagine what it felt like to open that storage locker and find the unprocessed films inside. And then to develop the films and see all that beauty kept on them…
I have read vivian’s story and seen her photos many many times. every time that I saw these photos, i am deeply impressed again and again. truely amazing photos and great street photographer.
I wish I had a T-Shirt with one of her photos for each day of the year… Wait, that´s actually doable!,-)