Vivian Maier

1926 — 2009

Vivian Dorothy Maier was a street photographer known for her images of people and cityscapes of New York and Chicago. She was born in New York City and grew up in France. After returning to the United States, Maier worked as a nanny in Chicago. Vivian Maier died unknown in 2009, single and penniless, but she left behind a treasure: an archive of some 150,000 photographs – negatives, undeveloped rolls of film, color slides, prints.

After her death, the young real estate agent and amateur historian John Maloof bought at auction a tin box containing more than thirty thousand of Vivian Maier's negatives for 380 US dollars and made her works known. Since then, recognition and interest in Maier's work has grown. Her photographs have been exhibited worldwide, including at the Steven Kasher Gallery in New York, the London Street Photography Festival, and the Amerikahaus in Munich.