This Critically Acclaimed Street Photographer Spent Her Entire Life in Obscurity, Working as a Nanny
A genius photographer who wasn’t recognized until much later
Vivian Maier (1926–2009) was an American street photographer known for her vast body of work capturing people, architecture, and fleeting moments on the streets of mid-century Chicago and New York.
During her lifetime, she took more than 150,000 photographs.
Today she has a key place in the history of street photography. Her work has been exhibited in galleries around the world.
Her rare ability to pick out patterns between human figures and their architectural surroundings made her unique among other street photographers.
But it’s not just her craft that makes her story special. Her story is also special because, throughout her life, she hid her talents from the world.
For nearly 40 years, Vivian worked as a nanny for families in Chicago and New York. But no one knew her as the genius photographer that she was.
It was during her daily errands and outings with family children that she clicked most of her photographs.
But despite clicking thousands of pictures, she never developed any of those. The majority of her photographs remained unpublished during her lifetime.
Her work was eventually discovered in 2007 when a Chicago-based collector, John Maloof, found a big stock of Vivian’s never-printed negatives in a box he bought at a local auction house.
After developing some of these images, he realized these pictures were surely taken by a prolific and talented photographer.
In 2009, Vivian’s photographs went viral when John Maloof shared the pictures on the image-sharing website Flickr.
Since then, Vivian’s work has received critical acclaim. Her story has been turned into books and films, including the documentary ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ which was nominated for the Oscars.
The finding of Vivian’s work has been referred to as the ‘Greatest Photographic Discovery of the 21st Century’.
Just like Vivian, we all have something unique to offer to the world. Her story tells us the importance of sharing it with others. So, don’t hide your gifts in a box. Share them for it makes the world better.
As James Clear puts it —
“We have a responsibility to share our work with the world, to contribute our talents to this little sliver of the universe.”
Liked reading it? Subscribe to my weekly newsletter ‘Simpler Sundays’ — Your dose of relaxed reading, delivered at the end of each week.
