A young Chicago man, John Maloof purchased several years ago a bin of photographic negatives at a storage locker auction. After several years of research, and more purchases from others, he was able to attach a name and a brief biography to the hundreds of thousand negatives and undeveloped film rolls. That name; Vivian Maier (1926-2009) who lived and worked in Chicago as a nanny and spent her spare time photographing on the streets of that city.
So much more about Vivan Maier’s work needs to be uncovered. John Maloof estimates, to his admittedly unprofessional eye, that 1 in 10 of the photographs are really very worth while. There are perhaps 20,000 or so images that he has not yet seen. Read much more about this amazing discovery here (U.K. Independent), here (NY Times), here (video)and here (Maloof’s blog).
This is one of many self portraits in the Maloof archives.
Tags: chicago, photography, storage locker treasure, street photography, vivian maier
