Street Photographer’s Work Discovered A Few Days After Her Death

Street Photographer’s Work Discovered A Few Days After Her Death

Vivian Maier's street photography was recently "discovered" just a few days after she died at the age of 83. The Chicago nanny took over 100,000 photographs and many say she may rank among the top street photographers of the 20th century.


Read The Vivian Maier Update post here.

Lee Morris's picture

Lee Morris is a professional photographer based in Charleston SC, and is the co-owner of Fstoppers.com

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Great pictures, but what I want to know is why did the family give him her belongings? Don't you think they would want them to remember her by? Isn't the family interested in this "gold mine"? Makes you think she wasn't very close to them...how sad.

She didn't have a family. She was a loner. Well, there may be relatives, but apparently she distanced herself from them for whatever reason.

Great Photos. With so many Photos, maybe the best way to see them is as a slide show, instead of 80 or so printed pieces. Also, maybe a series of Disks of her work, with as many as would fit on each. It seems to me that Vivian was a quiet person, with tons of talent, God Bless Her. I don't normally say such things, but it seems appropriate for her. She saw the ordinary and made it extraordinary.

Jonathan, Hire some interns from the Chicago area. What an incredible lineage to be a part of.

I hope this amazing showing comes to Indianapolis! Often artists are not the best people to market their own work, and many blessing on the soul who took this on as his life's work.

The biggest question in my mind is, how can John Maloff use these in a book if he doesn't own the copyright? Why aren't more people asking this question? Just because you can't find the heirs after a cursory search, doesn't mean the photos are yours to profit from. His original purpose in bidding on these are suspect for this reason. How was he going to get a copyright on photos he got from an auction?

He's the rightful owner now.

I find it irony that the same streets that she obviously loved to photograph, in the end, inadvertently caused her demise...

Thank You John for doing all of this work. She deserves to be recognized.

I would Love to see this in portland Oregon

Long live film,I wonder if our digital images will effect history like this?

great story....

wow

What an amazing event this is in the history of photography !  This is an incredible discovery that may well never, ever be duplicated in our lifetimes !  Just thinking of all those rolls of film yet to be developed and revealed to the world boggles the mind just to try and fathom it !  It must be destiny that this photographic treasure falls in the hands of this young man who truly understands the importance of it !   If I were him I would go to KIck Starter to help raise funds to continue developing and processing her work. I know I would contribute !!

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