By Jonathan Shih
"If you really have something to say, better to be behind the camera than in front of it." — Vivian Maier
Happy birthday to the enigmatic Vivian Maier (1926–2009), the legendary street photographer whose incredible work remained hidden during her lifetime. Her life journey is the true depiction of the fact, how capturing moments in photographs passes legacy throughout the decades.
Vivian Dorothy Maier was born in New York but spent her childhood in France, returning to the US to eventually settle in Chicago working as a nanny. While pursuing her profession as a nanny for over four decades, she secretly documented the streets of Chicago, New York, and beyond, capturing raw, unfiltered moments of her surroundings.
Her works were discovered by a man named John Maloof. He bought some boxes from her rented storage unit at auction. The boxes contained 1000s of negatives, prints and undeveloped rolls of film, and fortunately, he had enough passion and interest in them to curate a body of work. There were actually also two other collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, who found some of her prints and negatives around the same time, but it was John Maloof who made it his job to introduce the world to Vivian Maier's legacy. Her photographs showcase a masterful eye for composition, humor, and human emotion, often highlighting the simple lives of the working class, children, and the unnoticed beauty of fleeting moments. Maier’s use of light, reflections, and unique perspective set her apart, making her one of the most compelling street photographers of the 20th century.
Though she never sought recognition, her posthumous fame has recognized her as a visionary artist, reminding us of the power of photography to preserve history and human connection.
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