Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer born in New York City from a French mother and an Austrian father.
Often described as ‘Mary-Poppin’s’, Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her career, primarily of the people and architecture of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles. She never married, had no children, nor any very close friends that could say they “knew” her on a personal level.
Her photographs were unknown to the public for her entire life. Her great work came to life in 2007, when it was discovered at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest Side, and purchased by Chicago collector John Maloof. Her photographs were first published on the internet in July 2008 but received little response. Finally in October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier’s photographs on Flickr and the results went “viral”, with thousands of people expressing interest.
Critical acclaim and interest in Maier’s work quickly followed, and since then, Maier’s photographs have been exhibited in North America, Europe, and Asia.
I love how genuine and simple her work is, i love that looking at her photographs takes me 50 years back and is a fantastic testimony of what life looked like back then in America.
I attached some of my favorite photographs to this post, please visit http://www.vivianmaier.com/ for a lot more
The Jujuchan 