Tuesday 7th January 2014

I watched a program I had recorded a few weeks ago, ‘Imagine...Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny’s Pictures’.

Alan Yentob told the story of a nanny who left behind a secret hoard of photographs never seen in her lifetime, but they now sell for thousands of dollars. In total there are thought to be approximately 150,000 images that she took in her lifetime. The known images were found in various storage lockers and sold at auction, when she was unknown and undiscovered. Some of these images now sell for between $2k-$8k.

Virtually none of the images had ever been printed, so they had never been seen by anyone else other than the photographer, Vivian Maier. This was in my opinion a personal goal, a release from society, freedom to express behind the physical camera?

The majority of the images were of street photography, although many are in a portrait style.  Vivian Maier was born in New York, her mother being French. She moved back to France between the ages of 6 and 12, then headed back to America and eventually settled in Chicago as a Nanny. Many of the images were taken in Chicago, in some of the more deprived areas in Downtown Chicago. She was a very brave woman to photograph in this particular area and around that time in Chicago.

I found the images inspiring, although always remembering that the printing and selection process has been completed by others, not the photographer...