honeydunce

Here is John Maloof’s explanation of how he acquired the photography of Vivian Maier:

I acquired Vivian’s negatives while at a furniture and antique auction. From what I know, the auction house acquired
her belongings from her storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. I didn’t know what ’street photography’
was when I purchased them.

It took me days to look through all of her work. It inspired me to pick up photography myself…After some researching, I
have only little information about Vivian. Central Camera (110 yr old camera shop in Chicago) has 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. She loved foreign films and didn’t care much for American films.

Out of the 30-40,000 negatives I have in the collection, about 10-15,000 negatives were still in rolls, undeveloped from the
1960’s-1970’s. I have been successfully developing these rolls. I still have about 600 rolls yet to develop. I must say, it’s
very exciting for me. Most of her negatives that were developed in sleeves have the date and location penciled in French
(she had poor penmanship)…She was a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. She
learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. She wore a men’s jacket, men’s shoes and a large hat most of the
time. She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn’t show anyone.

I found her name written with pencil on a photo-lab envelope. I decided to ‘Google’ her about a year after I purchased these
only to find her obituary placed the day before my search. She passed only a couple of days before my inquiry on her.

To read more about Vivian and see more of her brilliant photography, click here to go to the site.

(i’m posting this after reading about vivian on sweet juniper, another very-favorite blog which you can find in the links on the right side of my site)