There is still very little known about the life of Vivian Maier. What is known is that she was born in France in 1926 and worked as a nanny for a family on Chicagorsquo;s North Shore during the 50s and 60s. Seemingly without a family of her own, the children she cared for eventually acted as caregivers for Maier herself in the autumn of her life. She took hundreds of thousands of photographs in her lifetime, but never shared them with anyone. She was shy and proud and lost possession of her art when her storage locker was sold off for non-payment. Maier passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. John Maloof is a historian, street photographer, and former real estate agent from Chicagorsquo;s… Northwest Side. He discovered the first negatives of Vivian Maierrsquo;s work in 2007 while compiling a book about the history of the neighborhood where he grew up. Allan Sekula is a photographer, writer, critic, and professor on the faculty of the Program in Photography and Media at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Sekula has exhibited his work widely in gallery and museum shows worldwide. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Research Institute, the Deutsche Akademischer Austausdienst, and the Atelier Calder. In 2007 Sekula was named a USA Broad Fellow. He is also the author of numerous books, most recently Performance under Working Conditions (Generali Foundation, 2003).
There is still very little known about the life of Vivian Maier. What is known is that she was born in France in 1926 and worked as a nanny for a family on Chicagorsquo;s North Shore during the 50s and 60s. Seemingly without a family of her own, the children she cared for eventually acted as caregivers for Maier herself in the autumn of her life. She took hundreds of thousands of photographs in her lifetime, but never shared them with anyone. She was shy and proud and lost possession of her art when her storage locker was sold off for non-payment. Maier passed away in 2009 at the age of 83. John Maloof is a historian, street photographer, and former real estate agent from Chicagorsquo;s… Northwest Side. He discovered the first negatives of Vivian Maierrsquo;s work in 2007 while compiling a book about the history of the neighborhood where he grew up. Allan Sekula is a photographer, writer, critic, and professor on the faculty of the Program in Photography and Media at the California Institute of the Arts in Valencia, California. Sekula has exhibited his work widely in gallery and museum shows worldwide. He is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Getty Research Institute, the Deutsche Akademischer Austausdienst, and the Atelier Calder. In 2007 Sekula was named a USA Broad Fellow. He is also the author of numerous books, most recently Performance under Working Conditions (Generali Foundation, 2003).