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Finding Vivian Maier: by Mary Walker
Finding Vivian Maier: by Mary Walker
By Mary Walker
Well, I suppose
nothing is meant to
last forever. We have
to make room for
other people. Its a
wheel. You get on,
you have to go to
the end. And then
somebody has the
;same opportunity
to go to the end and
so on. Vivian Maier
When John Maloof bid on a box of
old photo negatives at an estate auction in 2007, little did he know he
was stepping deep into the mystery
of Vivian Maier.
Maloof, then a real estate agent, was
looking for images to use in a book
about the history of the Portage Park
neighborhood. Instead, what he
found were 30,000 images by Maier,
who spent much of her time wandering Chicago and the world as a street
photographer with a keen eye for
capturing compelling images.
Since then, Maloof has amassed an
archive of Maiers life and work.
Stashed in the attic studio of his
Portage Park home are her cameras,
2,000 rolls of film, 3,000 prints and
100,000 negatives, as well as many
8mm movies and audiotapes. Stacks
of old suitcases, a steamer trunk of
pher.
opens Friday.
blanks.
to someone else.
earlier.
her.
As I progressed as a photographer
Rydzon says.
and politics.
books.
them at vivianmaier.com.
Mother Mary
Often described as Mary-Poppins, Vivian Maier had
eccentricity on her side as a nanny for three boys who she
raised like a mother. Starting in 1956, working for the
Gensburgs in an upper-class suburb of Chicago along
Lake Michigans shore, Vivian had a taste of motherhood.
Shed take the boys on trips to strawberry fields to pick
berries. Shed find a dead snake on the curb and bring
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