Land of the Lost: The Street Photographer Who Almost Vanished

I wanted to blog about this story for a while, but didn't have the chance to until now.  The story is about an unknown street photographer, Vivian Maier; I was drawn to it while watching a television segment one night.

In the video below you will find out about John Maloof, who discovered her work and is using most of his time making sure this amazing photographer is recognized and put alongside one of the greats.  Tripwire magazine just posted an article on the 35 Great Photographer's Portfolio Sites to Inspire You, but these photographs by Vivian are more than that.  They are period time pieces; like moments frozen in time.  As I look through these images it makes me wish I had a time machine, or I simply a wormhole or some type of anomaly, like in Star Trek.

What makes Vivian's story so unique, is that she was just a simple Nanny; who during her breaks was able to find the time to walk the streets of Chicago, taking photographs. According to John she was a very private woman, which is something he discovered when he found her photographs.  He bought a storage locker at a Chicago auction house, and when he opened it found thousands of negatives that obviously Ms. Maier had never seen herself.  He is in the process of developing these rolls and has already opened a show which was years in the making.

John mentions on his blog that out of the 100,000 negatives he has in his collection, 20-30,000 of them were still in rolls, undeveloped from the 1960s - 1970s.  After reading a New York Times article, I learned a little more about this private woman.  She was born in New York in1926, lived in France and returned to New York in 1951. Five years later she moved to Chicago, where she worked for 40 years as a Nanny.

I look forward to keeping track of John's blog and up to date with news articles to discover more from this amazing photographer.  For the mean time, enjoy this wonderful video.