Vivian Maier

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Vivian Maier may be one of photography's most mysterious artists. Maier was born in 1926 and passed away in 2009. When she was younger she worked as a nanny for several families. Some of the children she cared for considered her a Mary Poppins to them. She would always take them to unusual places and on exquisite adventures. On her day off she would usually go around town with her camera taking pictures. What makes Vivian Maier so interesting is the fact that she took over 100,000 images and chose to never share any of them with anyone.

It wasn't until John Maloof unknowingly bought her archive at a furniture and antiques auction much after she had stopped shooting. After sorting through thousands of boxes of negatives and undeveloped film, he discovered he was sorting through the work of a genius. 

In the beginning, he didn't know that the work he had recently acquired belonged to Maier. Through the process of sifting through her archived he found her name on an envelope full of negatives. Maloof was able to find her information and contact her nursing home.  He called her nursing home as soon as he could only to discover that she had died 3 days earlier. 

Why would someone with such talent and such passion hide away their remarkable pieces of work? Every one of her images tells a story and gives us insight into what she saw day-to-day. The composition she creates with her street photography is cunning.  She was not afraid to get up close to her subject. She exhibits the same quality of work as the famous photographers of her day; yet, she preferred to remain humble with her passion and hide it away.

If Maloof had not accidentally stumbled across her work, Maier would have remained unrecognized. Even with her whole archive at our disposal she is still an ambiguous figure. There are still thousands of undeveloped negatives and film remaining.

The most frustrating part about her story is that she was not able to be recognized for her work during her time--maybe she wanted to keep things that way. It is also very unfortunate that Maloof was so close to meeting her in person and to uncovering the motives behind her work and her thoughts. 

This brings me to the conclusion that if Vivian Maier had been discovered just by chance, how many other undiscovered,great, and passed-away photographers are there yet to find?