Vivian Meier: the story of an unknown street photographer

nico

nico

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I just read, on an italian on-line newspaper, an amazing story about Vivian Meier, an unknown street photographer from the 1950s - 1990s. Her work was discovered by a collector at an auction in Chicago where she resided most of her life. The work includes about 100,000 negatives and about 15.000 of undeveloped rolls of film. Born February 1, 1926 and deceased on Tuesday, April 21, 2009.
The owner of Vivian Meier's archive is updating a blog where her photos are finally shown.
I personally find her work very interesting, hope you'll like it too.
Here the link to the blog: http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com
 
There is alot of discussion about her work on here. Personally I think that she is creative with her TLR though fairly average over all.
 
She's rapidly become one of my favorite photographers -- especially given that her work is being edited and prepared by someone else who never had the chance to know her, and more or less stumbled into possession of her archive.
 
I've seen her work due to the earlier threads on her about her, also. I think that her stuff is fantastic. She really had a great eye for street photography.
 
I had not seen her work before nor knew anything about her, so thanks for the link. It is so wonderful to see some ones work and such a pity that her images were hidden and never displayed! Thanks Nico.
 
This is the second time I read about her, recently. Wish I can remember where I read the previous one.
 
I like her work from what I see in the blog ... but have to say I prefer the 'bite' of Arbus with the square format.
 
She had a look similar to Fritz Henle , Marianne Breslauer or Re Soupault. A style that is imo characterised by the photographers bow in front of his subject.
 
Keith said:
I like her work from what I see in the blog ... but have to say I prefer the 'bite' of Arbus with the square format.
Click to expand...

Her work is like a kinder, gentler Arbus with a touch of Robert Frank. An extraordinary discovery, imo.
 
Yes, I am sure she was happy with her work as well. But she could have gotten international recognition before death but didn't bother, and maybe she didn't have to end up homeless so late in life either.
 
She ended up homeless? Maybe that explains 100's of undeveloped films. I was gonna say, not showing your photos to anyone is one thing, not seeing them yourself is another. Oh well, just shooting is also a pleasure.

Absolutely love her work. Lucky guy who "rescued" them. I'd be so inspired! But so is he, I follow the guy on flickr and while he doesn't copy her work I can see it drives him. How could it not?
 
I just had an interesting conversation with my wife regarding the upcoming exhibit.

Wife: Do you know where the Cultural Center is?
Me: Yeah. It used to be the public library on Michigan Ave. Why?
Wife: You know [wife's colleague]? There's an photo exhibit at the Cultural Center...
Me: VIVIAN MEIER???
Wife: Yeah, she was [wife's colleague] nanny. How did you know?
Me: WHAT? REALLY?
Wife: Yeah, I used to see her at the office every once in a while....Yep that's her (viewing the Meier blog I just brought up). Honey? Honey?
Me: <Pass out on the floor......>

There's much more that I probably shouldn't divulge. I've been a big fanboy since the beginning and I never would have guessed the missus would be interested in this fascination. Now she is!

<edit> I don't know why I picked this thread to post as there are plenty of more current threads about VM.
 
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not sure if this will be available to those outside the US (TV websites are notorious for limiting access), but it's a good recap of the story.
 
I think you might find more of the real story here. It starts getting
especially interesting with the posts of Ron Slattery on page 3.
 
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