Vivian Maier Research Note

VIVIAN MAIER 

Vivian Maier was a street photographer who captured some of the most interesting marvels and peculiarities of Urban America in the second half of the twentieth century. She was described by many as the 'stereotypical european liberated woman' who was private in regardless for her love of photography. 

All of the images we see now from Vivian Maier were not developed around the 1950's - 1980's (when most of them were taken) instead they were developed in 2007 by John Maloof who happened to purchase a box of undeveloped film named 'Chicago 60's' at an auction. Thinking nothing of them when he couldn't find any that he could use for his book they were pushed to the back until a year on he picked them up, fell in love with them and got them developed. 

Vivian Maier's work is now said to depict the truth of New York around the 1960's capturing moments that made people stop and take in the story behind that time.  

     

One style that Vivian Maier's work is known for if her self portrait and framing photographs. These images not only capture a scene but also Vivian taking the photo adding to the depth and the personality of the photos. Some photos that she took can be quite confusing as it feels like there are a lot of fames all merged into one, for example, this image to the left. The main focus of the image being the two ladies sitting on the bench through a window at the bottom of the image. They appear very small compared to the reflection of Vivian Maier who's reflection doesn't really hold much detail but instead seems more like a silhouette due to the way the light is on the window. The background of the image also seems like a completely different frame to me as it seems much darker than Vivian does in the photo. The cars in the background paint a clear picture of the time and place of the image, New York, 1954. The ladies in the window are wearing very classic 1950's clothes which adds to the time frame of the image and paints us an even wider picture of the way American culture was at the time. The images above has a joyous and real feel to it, the emotions on the ladies faces are real, not set up for the camera. The moment has been captured exactly how it was lived out. This style was maintain throughout Vivian Maier's work which is perhaps why her work is so widely adored, she takes those everyday moments and focuses on the emotion in each one. 

This is another example of Vivian's 'self-portrait' portfolio whereby she catches her reflection in each of her photos. I particularly like the way this image is set out because of the distance between her and her reflection, it almost appears as though she's caught her reflection unintentionally. I like all of the different textures in the photo as you can see them in a lot of detail which adds the the realness of the photo. For example the fur on the cat, the mirrored surface, the tiles and the marble which the cat appears to be on. It makes the image that little bit more to the person looking into it, its like you could easily be where Vivian is standing looking at the same scene. The kitten in the photo adds to the momentary style of photography that Vivian took on by proving that her photos were not set up instead they were scenes that she saw whilst walking down the streets of New York. This could be what makes her images so interesting today, because of the way that nothing was set up, she never adjusted the way things really were, instead she would take them at face value and capture the moment precisely how it was supposed to be.

This image by Vivian Maier is part of her self-portrait collection. She uses reflection to her advantage when taking photos that include herself, rather than setting a camera up and standing in the shot. In the photograph we can see that there are two little boys in what appears to be a cart, smiling and laughing with Vivan. We can assume that those are the two boys that Vivian nannied for most of her life. The happiness in the image shows the relationship she had with the children which is evident from what we have learnt previously about her. The composition of the image is very different to most as the focus is directly in the centre. The front of the photo is in focus but the background isn't, this indicated that Vivian used a shallow depth of field to achieve this effect. Most of Maier's photographs were taken in black and white until she started using a colour camera, this really gives this image in particular a great effect. The soft colours radiate a very happy and bright vibe, which reflects the emotion we can see in the image.