Vivian Maier

Vivian Maier was a photographer in NYC in 1951 and photographed her every day life

Vivians' story

Vivian was a Nanny who worked in New York in 1951. During her time being a nanny, she would take photographs of her daily life using a film camera with Ektachrome B&W film. this film was discovered in a storage unit that was auctioned off after her death. the new owner of her storage unit decided to develop her photos and discovered this unknown photographer that composed beautiful imagery of peoples every day lives in NYC.

Vivian died in 2012 before she rose to fame.

Juxtaposition

As seen in the picture to the left, there is a child on a bike next to a man smoking a cigarette. There are multiple juxtapositions in this image. the first one is that a child (which is used to represent youth and health) is seen by a grown man and a cigarette (who is used to display age, bad health and death.). Another juxtaposition that i notice is that bicycles represent athletic ability where as cigarettes limit your capability to do so.

Style

Vivian Maier started of by using a Kodak Brownie box camera with one shutter speed, no aperture and focus control. She later Got herself a Rolleiflex camera which soon became her go to camera brand throughout her career. Some of the cameras she used included the Rolleiflex 3.5T, Rolleiflex 3.5F, Rolleiflex 2.8C, Rolleiflex Automat and many more. All of her photography is in B&W and she was a street photographer who just took photos of people getting on with their lives no matter their background. She showed the everyday lives of people in poverty, of different age ranges, different rent races ect as well as being a feminist . Sh e had a beautiful understanding of composition and lighting in her images despite her not being professional in the field in her life and not even publicising her photos.

Contrast

Vivian used high contrast in her images to add another layer dramatics to her views of how she saw the world and colour. Her photos were also quite gritty. these made her photos quite powerful to. get across her message which was often gritty in nature as it was.

My Response

I love how Vivian maier composes her images. her understanding of angle, lighting and composing pictures is astonishing. She emphasises every little detail of her subject with her usage of high contrast. I also think her story is beautiful yet tragic, only losing her solitude after she died when her pictures were discovered.