Vivian Maier : : out of the Shadows

Locations
Call Number: 779.092 Ma
On Shelf At: Downtown Library

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	779.092 Ma	4-week checkout	On Shelf

Snapshots -- America -- Day -- Maxwell -- Beach -- 1968 -- Downtown -- Walks -- Night.
Presenting her photographs alongside interviews with those who knew her best, this volume is the first attempt to put Vivian Maier's work in context and create a portrait of her as an artist. Though she created more than 10,000 negatives during her lifetime, only a few of them were ever seen by others. Shortly after her death in 2009, the first group of her unseen Chicago photographs--gritty with humanity and filled with empathy and beauty--were shown online. Word of her work spread quickly, catapulting Maier from previous obscurity to being labeled as one of the masters of street photography.--From publisher description.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

I'm so glad this lifetime of work wasn't lost. submitted by ccrose on July 4, 2019, 8:02pm A woman who was compelled to take photographs, mostly people on streets of NYC and Chicago. Every day for decades, the camera around her neck. A woman of extremes: no friends, family or lovers, she must have craved emotional intimacy.
Her black and white shots are beautifully structured to include the faces/bodies with the integration of the hard angles of our cities. I loved the shots in which the individual stares back at her, a moment of truth, Moments when she saw some kind of shimmer around ordinary folks in ordinary moments. I don't believe she judged people or used her camera as a weapon.
But she shared her work with no one! It took an auction after her death, of boxes of negatives and thousands of rolls of undeveloped film, bought by chance by local historian John Maloof, to bring them all into the light. It was the combination of her artistry with her obsession to look that makes me want to see the pictures face to face someday.