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Who is Vivian Maier?
Vivian Maier was born February 1st, 1926, in New York, New York, United States and passed away April 21st, 2009. Maier was known for her street photography, which portrayed her observations, composition and empathy for her subjects. Her work falls more towards showing the urban life and the everyday life of people on the streets. Her photos were often candid, therefore showing genuine emotions and expressions from children to the elderly. Maier’s photographs weren’t discovered until after her passing in 2009. She is now known as one of the most remarkable street photographers of the 20th century. Vivian had a passion for photography but kept it hidden as she was a nanny for more upper-class family’s while being part of the lower-class herself. Her pictures are shot mostly in black & white giving her photographs a look displaying her understanding of composition, lighting and human conditions. As said before, her style was more street photography, but she also did lots of self-portraits which was achieved through reflections in windows or mirrors and also showing her shadow as a way of showing herself. These photographs add an intriguing layer to her body of work, giving a rare insight to the artist behind the camera.
Why I chose Vivian
I chose Vivian Maier for her simple but interesting style. She did street photography and self-portraits for years all in secret which I find fascinating. From her life, I like the fact that no one discovered her photos until a few years before her death, and how her photos have a touch of her everyday life before and after caretaking for the boys she raised like a mother. As said before, Vivian Maier’s life remained largely unknown until after her death, and a lot of her personal history is still a mystery. One interesting thing about Maier’s life is that she had a background in filmmaking. She recorded numerous 8mm and 16mm films. The films she took showcased her keen observational skills documenting the streets and people around her like her photography did. When discovering her films, it added a new understanding to Vivian and her artistic pursuits. She had a multifaced approach to capturing the world around her.
Vivian Maier's photos inspiring mine
Image 1
Vivian's photo my photo
In this photo, I captured other photography students from class to have a similar look to her sailor’s photo. In my mind, she captured a group of people all dressed the same waiting to leave, while I captured a group of people all with cameras. I tried centering everyone like she did and got everyone to look at me
Image 2
Vivian's photo my photo
Looking at my photo, I see people grouped together enjoying life, while having one person off to the side waiting. In Vivian’s photograph, we see exactly that but in a different way. She has four people cuddled together looking out with one person off to the side doing the same, and she also has another person (the little girl) also off to the side.
Image 3
Vivian's photo my photo
Looking at my photo and Vivian’s, I see similarities while also seeing differences as expected. The few similarities I see is the people, the cars and the stores. The few differences is the background, since Maier’s photo has buildings and the sky showing, versus mine has the wall of one building. I like the look of her photo for its simplicity, the details, and the look of the black and white she creates.
Image 4
Vivian's photo my photo
For this photograph, I was with a classmate who was feeding the birds, and I was able to get close to the bird with a 70-200 lens which permitted me to see as many details as possible. She centered the bird on the wall, and I tried centering the bird as well, but my photo is approximately 70% bird while hers is 20% bird.
Image 5
Vivian's photo my photo
When I look at Vivian’s picture compared to mine, the first thing I look at from hers is the two women with their arms intertwined. The moment I saw these two beautiful women walking on the sidewalk downtown, I captured the best shot I could and think they look relatively the same but in different timelines.
