In Vivian Maier Developed, we are introduced to the mystery of a street photographer who worked as a nanny.
When people first learn about Vivian Maier, the question often asked is: Why didn’t she share her photos with the world? Fame requires money, connections, and a bit of luck. Things that were in short supply in Vivian’s life.
Ironically, it was the lack of money that paved the road to fame for Vivian. Her inability to continue payments on a Chicago storage locker resulted in an auction of the things she left behind, including thousands of undeveloped negatives. In 2007, John Maloof needed vintage photos for a book about one of Chicago’s neighborhoods. At an auction, he bid on a box of negatives for about $400. That is how Maloof’s obsession with Vivian Maier began. Within a year, he had spent the bulk of his savings, buying her work from other bidders at the original auction and amassing more than 3,000 film rolls and 100,000 negatives. For the biography, Vivian Maier Developed, Ann Marks, an amateur genealogist, spent years filling in the gaps and unlocking the secrets of Vivian Maier’s life. As Vivian would confide to an employer, “My mother didn’t take care of me. I was shuffled around a lot.” Born in New York City in 1926, Vivian traveled back to France in 1950, after the death of her maternal grandmother. In the alpine region of Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur, where she had played as a child, Vivian took her first photographs with a box camera. Prior to Vivian’s arrival, no one had taken pictures of the area’s working class except on special occasions – and the majority of her subjects had never seen everyday pictures of themselves. When Vivian returned to New York City, she left her factory job and started working as a nanny, with the freedom to get outside as a street photographer. As a nanny, Vivian traveled from Cuba to California, eventually caring for children in Chicago. Often, Vivian was hired by a person with a creative background: a mother who was a sculptor or a doctor who was an amateur photographer. These creatives seemed to understand Vivian. Yet, she was secretive about her background. No one would want to learn their nanny had an unstable, narcissistic mother; a violent, alcoholic father; and a drug-addicted, schizophrenic brother. Even worse, a traceable trail could lead her family back to her, looking for money and blowing her cover. There is so much more to this biography and so much to learn about Vivian Maier. The book features nearly 400 photographs collected by John Maloof and paper records that form the puzzle pieces of Vivian’s life. The author, Ann Marks, creates a more complete picture of Vivian Maier, bringing this extraordinary woman into focus. For two years, John Maloof had searched Vivian Maier’s name on the internet, but found nothing, until Vivian Maier’s death notice in 2009. If John Maloof searched Vivian Maier’s name on the internet today, he would find millions of results.
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