An unknown photographer's work comes to light (2010 Doublesjubilee)
February 1, 2022 11:59 AM Subscribe
An unknown photographer's work comes to light (WWTW Video Link)
2010 MetaFilter link.
Synopsis: a man goes to an estate sale and finds boxes of photos, negatives as well as a wealth of undeveloped rolls of film. He buys some of it thinking that he may be able to use some of the images for a book that he is working on. When he brings it home he discovers that it is part of one person's work. The work is exceptional and the photographer was Vivian Maier, a nanny in Chicago. The man who bought the first box of negatives, John Maloof, then finds the other boxes of negatives that other people bought at the estate sale and buys them. He has about 100,000 negatives currently. Most of these negatives have never been seen before. Many rolls of film are yet undeveloped. He is currently scanning negatives to create a digital archive.
The video is short piece run by WTTW in Chicago. Some of the children that were nannied by Vivian are interviewed as well.
This is a follow up of this post by chunking express.
2022 edit: I updated the link to the video I posted 11+ years ago. A great deal has happened in those years including a documentary. Some of the questions of ownership and copyright of the photos and negatives have been hashed out over those years, answering some of the questions in the thread. Reading back on it, I thought @bighappyfunhouse's direct work with the Maier's photographs and John Maloof was insanely cool and they provided us context that hadn't been sourced by the media. Most of the links that @chungkingexpress had posted in his linked thread are still live too.
2010 MetaFilter link.
Synopsis: a man goes to an estate sale and finds boxes of photos, negatives as well as a wealth of undeveloped rolls of film. He buys some of it thinking that he may be able to use some of the images for a book that he is working on. When he brings it home he discovers that it is part of one person's work. The work is exceptional and the photographer was Vivian Maier, a nanny in Chicago. The man who bought the first box of negatives, John Maloof, then finds the other boxes of negatives that other people bought at the estate sale and buys them. He has about 100,000 negatives currently. Most of these negatives have never been seen before. Many rolls of film are yet undeveloped. He is currently scanning negatives to create a digital archive.
The video is short piece run by WTTW in Chicago. Some of the children that were nannied by Vivian are interviewed as well.
This is a follow up of this post by chunking express.
2022 edit: I updated the link to the video I posted 11+ years ago. A great deal has happened in those years including a documentary. Some of the questions of ownership and copyright of the photos and negatives have been hashed out over those years, answering some of the questions in the thread. Reading back on it, I thought @bighappyfunhouse's direct work with the Maier's photographs and John Maloof was insanely cool and they provided us context that hadn't been sourced by the media. Most of the links that @chungkingexpress had posted in his linked thread are still live too.
I was just remembering this Chicago find after seeing some of Maier's work in the Guardian. Looking forward to digging in to the old post & new links. Thanks!
posted by travertina at 1:45 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by travertina at 1:45 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
Her work is amazing - I mean, really amazing. Everything I stumble across one of her images I vacillate between thinking it’s Walker Evans or Robert Frank or… but every time it’s Vivian Maier and every time I think „But damn, is that a remarkable image.“ and then I feel privileged for being able to look at them, for being let into the world she saw.
It’s fucking great art.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:58 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
It’s fucking great art.
posted by From Bklyn at 2:58 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
WOW JUST WOW!
posted by robbyrobs at 4:08 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by robbyrobs at 4:08 PM on February 1, 2022 [1 favorite]
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