Vivian Maier may not be a household name but that's soon set to change, especially in households with a dark room and an active interest in street photography. Finding Vivian Maier, a documentary that's been picking up critical buzz, will be many people's first introduction to the titular snapper. Take a look at its new trailer to get a better idea of her story.
A photographer who probably never once told anyone to say cheese, Maier, who died in 2009, was a nanny who nursed an amazing secret: she was a gifted and prolific documenter of people and Chicago cityscapes. Her legacy, more than 100,000 photos and negatives, were a trove stumbled upon by co-director John Maloof.
These were discovered in an Illinois auction house and formed the jumping-off point for a film that investigates a strange and mysterious woman and the light she kept so firmly hidden under a bushel, or at least, in storage lockers.
Photographers like Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Capa have historically relished their celebrity, but Maier shied away from any form of notoriety, and then some. Maloof and his co-director Charlie Siskel discovered a woman who didn’t even tell her friends about her interest. But as the voiceover man says: “In death, she is getting fame she never had in life.”
Finding Vivian Maier is out on July 18.