An article by ours Chicago Correspondant BA (630 Words, 3 Min. Read)
She Lived in Shadows, Walked Through Cities Like A Ghost, and Capturered Beauty with Saying a word. Vivian Maier -Nanny by Profesion, Street Photographer by Secret Passion – Created One of the Most Extraordinary Bodies of Photograph Work in the 20th Center. Yet, shened it all in mass. Her Life Was Marked by DiscRement, Solitude, and An ALMOST MONASTIC Devotion To Observation. In Silence, She Watched. In Silence, She Clay. And in size, she Disappeared.
The Secret Artist
Vivian Maier Never Called Herself An Artist. She Never Exhibited Her Work, Never Publised Her Photographs, and Never Spoke of Her Art to Those Around Her. She worked as a nanny for decades in Chicago, Her Rolleiflex Camera Always Hanging from her Neck. She was Known to Take Children on Long Walks, Sometimes detouing Through Rough Parts of Town, Not For Leisure, But to Photograph.
As John Maloof, The Man Who Discovered Her NEGATIIIS, reflected in the Dockumentary: Finding Vivian Maier:
“She didn‘T Show The Work to Anyone. She had this Masive Body of Work That She Proteted from the World. You have to ask–Was it fear? Or control?“
Silence as Choice: Control Over Exposure
Maier’s Silence Was Not Simply Shyness. It was an armor. She Guarded Her Privacy Obsively, Sometimes Going by Directive Names, Locking Her Rooms, and Even DMANDING that Her Photographs and Personal Belongings Not Be Touched. She was fiercely independent; An obsever, not a participant.
“She was very prive. I don‘T Think She Wanted to Be Known,“ Said One of the Families Who Employed Her.
“Vivian said, ‘I am sort of a spy.” ‘
In a world obsessed with recorality, her refusal to be Seen entry be interpretd as resistance, a refusal to let the external world define her.
Silence as Symptom: a haunted past
But size can can be a symptom. The Dockumentary Hints at Possible Traumas. Some Interviewwees Speak of Emotional Instality, of a Past Perhaps Marked by Abandonment and Psychological Difficulty. Her Obsive Hoarding, Her Sudden Outbursts, and Her Distrust of Ontars Paint a Complex Picure. She was Known to Record Conversations Secretly, Collect NewSword Clippses about Violence and CRIME, and Store Tens of Thousands of Udevelloped Photographs in SuitCases.
“She was a riddle wrapped in a mystery InsiderAn enigma,“ Maloof noted.
Photographing in Silence
The Silence Extended InTo Her Work. Vivian Never Directed Her Subjects. She caught them in motion, unposed, unaware. She captaird Fleeting Expressions -toer, weary, amused, melancholic —With Astonishing Clarity. Her Lens Had Empathy, But no Intruption.
And there is a Paradox: Though she has refused to share her voice with the world, shepical powerfully thrive images. Every photograph was a Whispered Truth. And every Shadow She Captured was a mirror of the Shadows She carried with.
The Sound of Posthumous Applause
After Her Death in 2009, Her Silence Was Finally Broken; Not By Her, but by others. Thousands of Her NEGATIIIIS, undeveloped rolls, Audio Recordings, and Films Were Discovered in a Storage Locker. John Maloof Began Scanning and Sharing them, and the world tok notice. Galleries, Books, Retrospectives. She became a Sensation. But what will she has though of this?
“There‘SA Part of Me that Wonders if we violated her Wishes,“ Maloof Admits in The Film. “She didn‘T Want Fame. But how can we not like this brilliance?“
The Gift of Invisible Vision
After Her Death in 2009, Her Silence Was Finally Broken; Not By Her, but by others. Thousands of Her NEGATIIIIS, undeveloped rolls, Audio Recordings, and Films Were Discovered in a Storage Locker. John Maloof Began Scanning and Sharing them, and the world tok notice. Galleries, Books, Retrospectives. She became a Sensation. But what will she has though of this?
