Vivian Maier

[clouddancer]

Saw the first article on I Heart Chaos tonight.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2011/jan/16/vivian-maier-chicago-street-photography

The blog put up in her honor:
http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

A video:
http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=42,8,80&pid=A1hO97qcWo7ViDL_rWniVH2LakYxNa7J

[CauseISaidSo]

Wow. What an awesome eye for everyday life she had.

[lokisbong]

very cool! she seems to have been very good at getting very good shots of people in their everyday happenings. I hope to get even half that good some day.

[olavf]

I think I’m going to be spending the next three days going through all these. Thanks :/

[ennuipoet]

I’ve been following this story for a month or two, since finding a link to the Blog posting her photos. Her photographs…it’s hard to find the right word to sum them up, I dither between stark and stunning. No one knows much about Vivian, what kind of person she was, what her motivations for photography were. The consensus is that she would be mortified at the attention her work is receiving. 🙂

It also brings to light something important that a lot of photographers don’t think about. What happens to your photos after you are gone? I’ve been trying to make a decision over this for a while now. I’ve made provisions for my intellectual property to pass to a friend of mine rather than my family because my friend would know what is and isn’t worth preserving. The problem is my friend is a writer and knows nothing about photography. Now I need to make new provisions for a growing image library. Vivian’s work is an excellent example why. She never thought her work would be worth anything, so she did nothing. Now (and I am not hucking rocks at the guy who is publishing her work, he’s doing an amazing thing) a stranger is profiting from her life’s work.

If you have a will or arrangements, make sure you include your intellectual property folks. Otherwise you never know where it will end up. Most of us have more than a shoebox full of snapshots and Vivian proves we never know when they might have value.

[Curious]

ennuipoet i copy/pasted your comment to my sister. she has won some local prizes in juried shows and can use it much more than i can. i also sent her the link to the blog.

one note on vivian’s prints, since she isn’t printing them herself i wonder how much that impacts the finished print. a higher contrast print would IMO certainly enhance the “stark”ness.

[nobigdeal]

Amazing!!

[ravnostic]

Wow. The power of black and white. Wow.

//”Billy Graham is a cracker” gave me a chuckle.

[ennuipoet]

Wow. The power of black and white. Wow.

//”Billy Graham is a cracker” gave me a chuckle.

There is a reason people still work in B&W and why it remains the choice for Fine Art Photography. IMHO B&W removes all distraction from the image and compels the viewer to concentrate on content. Also B&W as a medium for Street Photography just seems…”right” though I can’t really say why I think that.

This is the photography I wish I was shooting, the kind of raw emotion in Vivian’s work raises photography to a level of visual poetry. All the more, to me, because she never published any of it on her own.

[ravnostic]

There is a reason people still work in B&W and why it remains the choice for Fine Art Photography. IMHO B&W removes all distraction from the image and compels the viewer to concentrate on content. Also B&W as a medium for Street Photography just seems…”right” though I can’t really say why I think that.

This is the photography I wish I was shooting, the kind of raw emotion in Vivian’s work raises photography to a level of visual poetry. All the more, to me, because she never published any of it on her own.

I can quite see that. I’ve occasionally looked at certain photos I’ve taken, rendered in black and white–nothing I do compares to hers. I’d love to see them in person–the computer screen also doesn’t do justice, I know from experience (at least my ‘puter screen). She’s inspirational, though. I’m tempted to head downtown today, to a seedy area, just for kicks.

//probably will get mugged and have my camera stolen.

Also striking to me, however, is the ‘people’ content. The people are doing things–or often, not. There are no cell phones to be seen. There is no political correctness as the mother scolds the child, lit cigarette in hand. People look over the edge of a building, and no one photographs what they see while they look. No one wears an i-Pod, nor a bluetooth gizmo.

The shots of people are of people just ‘being’. And that’s a rare thing to capture in any age, and I hesitate to think its at all possible in today’s age. Slight exaggeration there, but I don’t recall seeing anyone without some sign of ‘modern’ about them, or around them, any time recently. It’s hard to spot even a plain brown paper bag anymore.

[Curious]

This is the photography I wish I was shooting, the kind of raw emotion in Vivian’s work raises photography to a level of visual poetry. All the more, to me, because she never published any of it on her own.

ok i’m going out on a limb here to say i just don’t see it. my sister does street photography and has won prizes with some of it. and i look at her’s, vivan’s and others and go meh.

my sister defines my photos as traditional which i take to mean she thinks of them as meh so perhaps we are even.

on the subject of b/w i’m in the “it’s neat” camp. one of the deciding factors when i bought my last printer was it got good reviews on b/w printing. and the 13×19 epson 2200 my sister gave me is supposed to do decent b/w so i’m looking forward to that.

[Kestrana]

.

The shots of people are of people just ‘being’. And that’s a rare thing to capture in any age, and I hesitate to think its at all possible in today’s age. Slight exaggeration there, but I don’t recall seeing anyone without some sign of ‘modern’ about them, or around them, any time recently. It’s hard to spot even a plain brown paper bag anymore.

I know what you mean by this but I was processing scans of some expired Velvia 35mm film I took in New York back in September yesterday and just the nature of the film made people who were temporal residents of 2010 look distinctly from the 1970s, cell phones and all. Viewed through a lens of 50-70 years, those devices will look that same as the cigarette in the one woman’s hand.

/Billy Graham IS a cracker

[orionid]

Wow. The power of black and white. Wow.

//”Billy Graham is a cracker” gave me a chuckle.

There is a reason people still work in B&W and why it remains the choice for Fine Art Photography. IMHO B&W removes all distraction from the image and compels the viewer to concentrate on content. Also B&W as a medium for Street Photography just seems…”right” though I can’t really say why I think that.

This is the photography I wish I was shooting, the kind of raw emotion in Vivian’s work raises photography to a level of visual poetry. All the more, to me, because she never published any of it on her own.

This. But I also still have trouble bringing myself to photograph strangers at all. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because of the whole “photographers are terrorists” mindset pushed by the media over the last decade, but I always feel like someone might flip out if I take their picture.

Also: I lulzed at the Billy Graham Cracker.

[Curious]

This. But I also still have trouble bringing myself to photograph strangers at all. I don’t know why, maybe it’s because of the whole “photographers are terrorists” mindset pushed by the media over the last decade, but I always feel like someone might flip out if I take their picture.

that has nothing to do with it. they are afraid you will capture their souls.

seriously though that whole photographers are terrorists thing is just such a bunch of inexcusable crap. of the many bad things that came in the aftermath of 9/11 that is close to the top. combine that mindset with the absolutely pathetic lack knowledge about the law(s) of public photography and you get the countless stories of folks/cops over reacting.

[CauseISaidSo]

Don’t know if any of you have seen this before, but I printed a copy and keep it in my photo carry bag just in case. I’ve never been hassled while photographing, but it’s good information to have.

[Author]

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