Vivian Maier: nanny and photographer

To the outside world Vivian Maier was just a nanny and a housekeeper from Chicago. However, her hidden talent as a photographer was recognized only after her death in 2009 when John Maloof bought at auction of 100,000 of her negatives and published a book.

Mayer spent most of his life wandering around the streets of Chicago with a Rolleiflex camera and printing amazing black and white images that conveyed all aspects of life in America the middle of the last century.

Vivian got your pics penny, but to call her an Amateur just does not turn language. She never let anyone see your photos, no one even knew about her hobby. However, she left the current file is a photo, which is now possible to make a lecture for students about life, fashion, traditions and culture of the time.

Kudos to the photographer-lover of Vivian Maier (1926-2009) has come only after her death. And the discovery of her work became one of the most significant events in the world of contemporary photography.

Almost 40 years Vivian worked as a governess in different families. Her favorite hobby was to take pictures of everyday street life. All her pictures are made of good medium format camera with Rolleiflex.

During the year, Vivian Maier shot nearly 200 films — that is, in fact, it worked as a good professional.

The publication of works of a photo artist, like, totally not interested. Nevertheless, his vast archive of more than 100,000 negatives, she kept.

This giant collection of completely random at one of the auctions was bought by the historian John Maloof for only $ 400.

True facts about the life of Vivian Maier today, very little is known. To the end the question remains unanswered even about the place of her birth.

Some sources say that Vivian was born in France, according to other sources she is a native of new York.

Her mother, Maria Jossed, was French, and father Charles Meyer — Austrian. In childhood Vivian several times moved from France to the US, but she lived in France, unknown.

In 1951, when Vivian was 25, she moved to new York and worked for some time in one of the bakeries. In 1956 she found a Babysitting job and the next 40 years devoted to this activity, with as many as 14 years in the same family.

Their days she spent walking the streets and making photographs. In the period between 1959 and 1960, Vivian traveled to many countries, visited Thailand, Egypt, Indonesia, Vietnam, Taiwan and other countries. And in every city she visited, Vivian did a lot of photos.

Over time, the archive grew rapidly, and all the boxes which contained the materials, Vivian always was carrying with him to his new place of work.

So, one of her employers says that he counted 200 boxes, which brought a new governess.

In addition to photographs and negatives Vivian kept many old Newspapers and audio recordings of the conversations that she had with some of the people depicted in her photographs.

The films from her archive there are a lot of completely plotless clips — for example, filming from the train window.

Vivian Maier loved to wear huge wide-brimmed hats and men's pants. She was a feminist and shared socialist ideas.

Her character was very reserved, but she somehow miraculously managed to get on well with children.

Towards the end of the life of Vivian Maier for a while became homeless and lived on welfare.

But children whom she had raised, after learning of her plight, and collected for it, bought her an apartment and pay her bills.

In 2008 at the age of 82 years Vivian-slipped on ice, fell and hit her head hard.

She failed to recover from injury, and a year later she died in a nursing home.

In Chicago there is such a service: storage for a small fee take storing all sorts of things that owners have nowhere to go, and throw while sorry.

As soon as the owners cease to pay for storing their "treasures", they immediately put up for auction.

At one of these auctions, held in 2007, 26-year-old real estate agent John Maloof (John Maloof) bought a huge box of old negatives for a small price. Maloof made the purchase blindly and at first did not give it a value.

But when he started developing the films, you quickly realize their true value. He went back to the same auction and bought the rest of the boxes in which several thousand films.

John Maloof spent a year out of these boxes until I stumbled into one of them on the envelope with the name of the mistress of the archive.

On request "Vivian Maier" on the Internet John Maloof was able to find only a brief obituary of, no more was not. Maloof then began to search for the families who once worked Vivian Maier.

So he managed to collect several boxes of newspaper clippings made by Vivian, equipment with which she worked, and shown a lot of photos.

When Maloof posted the scanned pictures, they immediately made a splash in professional circles.

Maloof received nearly 200 proposals on the organization of special exhibitions and even a proposal to remove about Vivian Maier documentary.

In 2011 in the Chicago Cultural Center hosted the first debut exhibition of photographs by Vivian, and recently, Maloof published a book on Vivian Maier.

However, now one can find statements that John Maloof knew from the beginning who owns the pictures that he bought them at a time when Vivian was still alive, and that he knew what value he gets. But this is just one of the versions.