I've come across a amazing story. A Chicago man, John Maloof acquired Vivian Maier's negatives while at a furniture and antique auction. From what he knows, the auction house acquired her belongings from her storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. John didn't know what 'street photography' was when he purchased them.
It took him days to look through all of her work. It inspired him to pick up photography himself. Little by little, as he progressed as a photographer, he would revisit Vivian's negatives and he would "see" more in her work. He bought her same camera and took to the same streets soon to realize how difficult it was to make images of her caliber. He discovered the eye she had for photography through his own practice. Needless to say, he is attached to her work.
After some researching,he had little information about Vivian. Central Camera (110 yr old camera shop in Chicago) had encountered Vivian from time to time when she would purchase film while out on the Chicago streets. From what they knew of her, they say she was a very "keep your distance from me" type of person but was also outspoken.
Some of her photos have pictures of children and often times it was near a beach. He later found out she was a nanny for a family on the North Side whose children these most likely were. One of her obituaries states that she lived in Oak Park, a close Chicago suburb, but he later found that she lived in the Rogers Park neighborhood.
Out of the more than 100,000 negatives he has in the collection, about 20-30,000 negatives were still in rolls, undeveloped from the 1960's-1970's.He has been successfully developing these rolls. John says, it's been very exciting for him. Most of her negatives that were developed in sleeves have the date and location penciled in French (she had poor penmanship).
John found her name written with pencil on a photo-lab envelope. He decided to 'Google' her about a year after he purchased these only to find her obituary placed the day before his search. She passed only a couple of days before that inquiry on her.
He wanted to meet her in person well before he found her obituary but, the auction house had stated she was ill, so he didn't want to bother her. So many questions would have been answered if he had. What a fascinating woman and I am so glad John uncovered her.
VIVIAN MAIER 1926-2009
