In a nutshell, Vivian Maier, was a street photographer in Chicago from the 1950s to the 1990s. Her work, which was just recently discovered, “includes over 100,000 mostly medium format negatives, thousands of prints, and a ton of undeveloped rolls of film.”
The quality of some of her images is amazing (she captured people like Ansel Adams captured landscapes). The story many of them tell alone makes the pictures worth a look. But what really gripped me was how her work was discovered and what is very lovingly being done to share her work with the world.
The guy who discovered her work, John Maloof, created a blog as one way to bring Vivian Maier to the world. You can read more of the story and see the amazing images on his blog.
All of the images are copyrighted, so I couldn’t share any here. I just added that shot of me because imageless posts are just boring.
If you do visit John’s blog, let me know what you think.
Thanks for sharing! I obviously got this to work (it was me, not you). I was trying to comment on your old blog and about halfway through I think it was trying to re-direct me here, which explains the error. Sorry if I worried you about having a problem on your blog. It looks great!
I enjoyed the photographs. They are beautiful. Their prior obscurity is sad commentary on the state of the arts in America right now.
The only thing I have to say is that while the photographs are copyrighted — as every photograph is immediately upon its creation — that legal right does NOT belong to John Maloof. He merely purchased negatives and prints at an auction. Ownership of a negative or print does not include ownership of copyright to the image on it. That right belongs to the photographer, unless conveyed. Thus, the copyright to Vivian’s photos belonged to her and, after her death, passed to her legal heirs. Maloof merely owns the tangible objects in his possession.
Sorry to get all legal on you, but I thought it was relevant.
Ralph, I appreciate your setting me straight on the copyright thing. I must admit, the intricacies of copyright law are way over my head.
It does seem however that John Maloof is going about bringing these images and her work to light in an honorable fashion. It’s not all about profit for him. Or at least it doesn’t seem so to me.
I’m glad you enjoyed the images. I thought you might be one of my fans that would actually take the time to explore the links I provided. 🙂
I fear many of my other readers just don’t have enough of an interest in photography or art to want to look.
I eagerly welcome your leads and advice on photography. I hope to deepen my knowledge of it, so keep the posts coming!
I got around to looking at the Vivian Maier link today. I found it interesting that Vivian and I both traveled alone to places like Egypt, Thailand, Vietnam, and Indonesian – but she did it in 1959! Wow!
I also liked seeing the picture of the dog sitting the way K likes to sit, with her butt on a different level from her feet. 🙂
I forgot to mention that part to you, Shan. About her traveling. Alone now is one thing. But to travel the world, alone, as a woman in the 1950S? The girl had some cojones.