Wow! I was out last night at Barnes and Noble and of course, looking through the photography magazine section. I picked up Photo Techniques Magazine. I once subscribed but don’t now, but I still pick it up and leaf through because they invariably have something interesting.
Anyway, there was this great article about Vivian Maier with a few of her photographs. They are really great. Nobody knew who she was and her work wasn’t recognized until she had passed away. It has been saved and resurrected into a tour-de-force of images akin to Helen Levitt or Cartier-Bresson. Vivian has her own style and appears to move through her environment almost invisibly. The self portraits are so simply beautiful and creative. Like playing as a child.
Her work has been assembled into a terrific body of work and will be showing in several galleries around the world. There is also a book coming out which I preordered and it won’t ship until mid November.
A quote from the magazine article:
“As much as we would hope our being defined as “artists” is a result of our work alone, the art is only a sliver of the formula. What is accepted as art and who is defined as an artist is as much about marketing our narratives as it is about anything else.” -Fame is Narrative, The Photographs of Vivian Maier, Kevin Moloney
Please check this work out and consider the significance of keeping your hand in it, no matter what fame or notoriety comes from it. This is an astonishing story and the more you find out the more interesting it becomes. Go to the website and discover this unknown artist.
In case that isn’t enough, watch this video:
