Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny’s Pictures?
“Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny’s Pictures?” is a BBC Documentary from 2013 exploring the mysterious life and work of photographer Vivian Maier.
Vivian Maier was unknown as a photographer in her lifetime – she appears to have just taken photographs for her pleasure. I say because no one knows, as there is no documented evidence of her discussing her photography with anyone.
She was discovered, so to speak, around the time of her death. When dealers, who bought the contents of her storage lockers, sight unseen, after she failed to keep up the rental payments on them, discovered her life’s work. Some pictures were then placed on Flickr and the phenomenon spiraled from there.
She spent most of her working life as a nanny in Chicago leading to the posthumous tag as “Mary Poppins with a camera”. From interviews with people who knew her she always very solitary and perhaps a little odd in most people’s eyes; however through a review of her photography we see a different person.
As a photographer she was prolific shooting over 100,000 images (in the days of film), with an incredible hit rate – her negative show that she mainly took one shot on moved on and many rolls have many, many “keepers”. Compare this to most photographers now with digital who have shot 100 images before they are out of their driveway and get less than one keeper a day…
Maier’s work is a window into her world both inside and outside her day job as a nanny, as she often photographed her charges or took them with her as the walked the streets. However, we will only ever be able to peer through this window as she passed away without discussing her art. We will never really understand her thoughts and motivations we can only theorize.
One thing that shows through (in my opinion) in Maier’s work is the solitude that she appeared to crave in life. Her work is an observation into the world of the time; taken from an unobtrusive point of view. Is this down to how she acted or because she used a Rolleiflex with waist level viewfinder or perhaps because the world of Vivian’s life wasn’t full of cameras and people weren’t hypersensitive to them?
Maier also took many self-portraits; but not like todays selfies, here she captures a glimpse of herself in mirrors or windows in small areas of the frame or partially in shadow. Perhaps illustrating to us how she saw herself on the fringes on society.
Something else that can be seen in Maier’s work is that how the work around us can effect your work. Maier witnessed the Chicago Riots in 1968, which appears to be a trigger point in her work. After the riots her work is a little darker, reflecting the changing landscape in the USA. At this time, protests against Vietnam started, Bobby Kennedy’s assassination to Nixon resigning all thing that showed the US that not everything in the world was rosy, and the US was losing the innocence it had in the ‘50’s
In summary, I feel the work of Vivian Maier should serve as an inspiration to all photographers out there that you can produce outstanding work without being formally or classically trained, you just need to understand your subject. However, looking at Vivian Maier’s work after reading my tutors comments on my Assignment 1, where he said my shots we good but the set was eclectic and don’t set well as a set. I understand about what he means, Vivian Maier’s work is a not in a themed it is an eclectic collection of images and style documenting the world through her eyes.
References:
http://www.veoh.com/watch/v70590131KFPFjY7N?h1=BBC+Imagine+(2013)+Vivian+Maier+-+Who+Took+Nannys+Pictures (Accessed 4th August)