Things to Read - Street Photography & The Story of Vivian Maier

(All images from http://www.vivianmaier.blogspot.com/ )

A few weeks ago a friend sent me this link about Vivian Maier (thank you Jill!) and I found her story so compelling/fascinating/irresistible that I decided to do a blog post about her. A few years ago a real-estate agent named John Maloof purchased the negatives of an unknown photographer while attending a furniture and antique auction, hoping that the negatives would help him with compiling a book about Chicago history. Maloof later learned that the film had previously belonged to the undiscovered and now deceased photographer, Vivan Maier, whom art critics are now labeling the best "street photographer" ever. Really, her work speaks for itself, it's amazing. According to the NY Times, "Ms. Maier’s streetscapes manage simultaneously to capture a redolent sense of place and the paradoxical moments that give the city its jazz, while elevating and dignifying the people in her frames — vulnerable, noble, defeated, proud, fragile, tender and often quite funny." Click here to learn more and to view Maloof's blog of Maier's work.