Academy Award-nominated documentary about a mysterious nanny, who secretly took over 100,000 photographs that were hidden in storage lockers and discovered decades later, is now considered among the 20th century's greatest photographers. Maier's strange and riveting life and art are revealed...
watch.amazon.co.uk
There is also the fabulous photographer Jane Bown, working for the Observer, a documentary looking back at her work.
A revealing portrait of this most self-effacing but great portrait photographer emerges through conversation, anecdote and candid reflection. In the almost six decades that Jane Bown (b 1925) worked for the Observer newspaper, she became renowned for insightful, highly individualistic portraits...
Looking for Light should be watched by anyone that has the slightest interest in portraiture.
I'd rate Bown as one of the world's greatest portrait artists (photography division), probably eclipsing far better known names (Testino, I'm looking at you).
Looking for Light should be watched by anyone that has the slightest interest in portraiture.
I'd rate Bown as one of the world's greatest portrait artists (photography division), probably eclipsing far better known names (Testino, I'm looking at you).
Vivian Maier. Really enjoyed that documentary , Lots to think about and try and understand.
Well done to the guy who was determined enough to get her recognised.
It was telling in the JB doc, one of the opening shots has two film cameras in a wicker basket no lens caps.
It triggered me, but then I watched more of the doc and understood the connection she bought the the portrait session and really the tools (camera) were incidental.
I was amazed at the speed she worked at, it's worth a rewatch.
I worked for one of the London weeklies in the 1960s. We had two NUJ photographers, one had a Rolleiflex T and the other a Canon 7s; each had a Metz flash. If they wanted extra lighting they had to persuade the editor to sign an order to the hire company. We in the advertising department could always tell when the editor had refused: our rather swish Anglepoise lamps would be absent without leave!
Vivian Maier. Really enjoyed that documentary , Lots to think about and try and understand.
Well done to the guy who was determined enough to get her recognised.
I should probably try to see the VM film some time, though her pictures do nothing for me it would be nice to know why she's attracted so much attention.
I should probably try to see the VM film some time, though her pictures do nothing for me it would be nice to know why she's attracted so much attention.
Jane Brown has always seemed to me a very competent but Vanilla flavoured British press photographer, whereas Maier's personal observations often make me stop and wonder about her subjects.
I have moved this to the new Photographic Concepts forum because it seems like a better place for it than F&C ( and we need to coax some of the F&C crowd out of their hidey-hole :) I'm putting this in F&C because most of the videos I watch and get inspired by are film photographers (or...
Jane Brown has always seemed to me a very competent but Vanilla flavoured British press photographer, whereas Maier's personal observations often make me stop and wonder about her subjects.
Who is this Jane BROWN you speak of.
Jane Bown was the consummate portrait photographer of her time. While Karsh was the consummate one shot large format studio photographer. Brown achieved the similar plastic lighting and iconic images by natural light and educated intuition. Using mostly Olympus 35mm cameras. One thing she was not was vanilla. She captured the iconic essence of her subjects. The images distilled the way we perceived them as real people to this day.
When I was a student of photography in the 50's Jane's work was already exampled as a target for attainment for us.
I hang my head in ignomy and beg for clemency on the grounds that my wife has a friend called Jane Brown, who is not, so far as I'm aware, a photographer.
However: my personal opinion of Jane Bown is still the same. She was paid to take pictures for publication and was very good at it but none of them inspired me to want to know more about her subjects or emulate her style. Vivian Maier, on the other hand, produced many pictures (and bear in mind we have so far seen only a tiny part of her output) that do enthuse me.
Who is this Jane BROWN you speak of.
Jane Bown was the consummate portrait photographer of her time. While Karsh was the consummate one shot large format studio photographer. Brown achieved the similar plastic lighting and iconic images by natural light and educated intuition. Using mostly Olympus 35mm cameras. One thing she was not was vanilla. She captured the iconic essence of her subjects. The images distilled the way we perceived them as real people to this day.
When I was a student of photography in the 50's Jane's work was already exampled as a target for attainment for us.
You‘ve done it too now Bown’s name is nearly always misquoted. Perhaps she should have changed it to something more distinkive … Bowen perhaps, then she could have got sponsorship for her flash guns .. oh wait …
However: my personal opinion of Jane Bown is still the same. She was paid to take pictures for publication and was very good at it but none of them inspired me to want to know more about her subjects or emulate her style. Vivian Maier, on the other hand, produced many pictures (and bear in mind we have so far seen only a tiny part of her output) that do enthuse me.
I sympathise with this. It’s always a problem I think with photographers of well known people. They are not generally The sort of photos I find interesting, however competent.
I hang my head in ignomy and beg for clemency on the grounds that my wife has a friend called Jane Brown, who is not, so far as I'm aware, a photographer.
However: my personal opinion of Jane Bown is still the same. She was paid to take pictures for publication and was very good at it but none of them inspired me to want to know more about her subjects or emulate her style. Vivian Maier, on the other hand, produced many pictures (and bear in mind we have so far seen only a tiny part of her output) that do enthuse me.
Vivian Maier photographed the small world around her. She seemed to enjoy the act of taking photographs.
However it also appears that she had little interest in seeing the finished images. Only a tiny proportion of her films were ever processed, and those that were, were only processed as 6x6 enprints at local drug stores.
The reproductions that we see were selected and printing by others to their own taste and style. We have no idea what she might have selected for herself, or how she might have treated them.
She and her work will remain something of an enigma, albeit an interesting one. And one that captured the almost unsorted street life of her time. And with an apparently total lack of a personal filter.
She did show some interest as in the documentary she contacted a French printer about producing prints for her. I can't remember the details, it's in the docu somewhere. Perhaps the cost was an issue to her?
You‘ve done it too now Bown’s name is nearly always misquoted. Perhaps she should have changed it to something more distinkive … Bowen perhaps, then she could have got sponsorship for her flash guns .. oh wait …
It seem that she started off using Rollieflexes and soon settled on Olympus OM 's
She never got round to using flash, tripods or even reflectors, nor the assistance of numerous flunkies.
She was an example to us all as to what can be achieved with one camera and lens, a good eye, and an understanding of light and the nature of human behaviour. All of which allowed for a quite astonishing speed of working.
She did show some interest as in the documentary she contacted a French printer about producing prints for her. I can't remember the details, it's in the docu somewhere. Perhaps the cost was an issue to her?
That may be but the thought that she had little interested in prints is debatable and her lack of prints could have been in some part due to cost. She was after all a live in nanny. She certainly seemed to know she had talent as shown in letters found after her death.
Jane Brown has always seemed to me a very competent but Vanilla flavoured British press photographer, whereas Maier's personal observations often make me stop and wonder about her subjects.
No doubt but this is a poor example to support your thesis since firstly it’s a common misspelling and secondly it’s often ‘corrected‘ (uncorrected?) by the dastardly spillchucker and thirdly it was misspelled by @Terrywoodenpic , above, while he was correcting @AndrewFlannigan
Edit because the blöödy spillchucker changed my “uncorrected” to “I corrected”
Jane Brown has always seemed to me a very competent but Vanilla flavoured British press photographer, whereas Maier's personal observations often make me stop and wonder about her subjects.
I'm surprised to see that opinion with all of your extensive newspaper experience. I'd thought that you would know that British press photographers, at a national level, rank among the best photojournalists in the world and some of the best and most rounded photographers in this country.
No doubt but this is a poor example to support your thesis since firstly it’s a common misspelling and secondly it’s often ‘corrected‘ (I corrected?) by the dastardly spillchucker and thirdly it was misspelled by @Terrywoodenpic , above, while he was correcting @AndrewFlannigan
Whilst I'm well aware of the above - given it happened within 48hrs of a mod intervention because of his disgusting related behaviour - I consider it worthy of comment (YMMV)
edit to add - he's had me on ignore for a fair while now - because I'm unable to ignore his misogynistic and other inappropriate language. Frankly - he just can't deal with people disagreeing with him (see above)
I'm surprised to see that opinion with all of your extensive newspaper experience. I'd thought that you would know that British press photographers, at a national level, rank among the best photojournalists in the world and some of the best and most rounded photographers in this country.
I trust everyone is now done with name calling, passive aggressive comments and accusations?
It would be a shame to lock it as it actually started out as a sensible discussion.
Vivian Maier photographed the small world around her. She seemed to enjoy the act of taking photographs.
However it also appears that she had little interest in seeing the finished images. Only a tiny proportion of her films were ever processed, and those that were, were only processed as 6x6 enprints at local drug stores.
The reproductions that we see were selected and printing by others to their own taste and style. We have no idea what she might have selected for herself, or how she might have treated them.
She and her work will remain something of an enigma, albeit an interesting one. And one that captured the almost unsorted street life of her time. And with an apparently total lack of a personal filter.
Information about the Photographer Vivian Maier, a person who fit the stereotypical European sensibilities of an independent liberated woman, accent and all, yet born in New York City.
www.vivianmaier.com
"In 1956, when Maier moved to Chicago, she enjoyed the luxury of a darkroom as well as a private bathroom. This allowed her to process her prints and develop her own rolls of B&W film. As the children entered adulthood, the end of Maier’s employment from that first Chicago family in the early seventies forced her to abandon developing her own film. As she would move from family to family, her rolls of undeveloped, unprinted work began to collect.
It was around this time that Maier decided to switch to color photography, shooting on mostly Kodak Ektachrome 35mm film, using a Leica IIIc, and various German SLR cameras. The color work would have an edge to it that hadn’t been visible in Maier’s work before that, and it became more abstract as time went on. People slowly crept out of her photos to be replaced with found objects, newspapers, and graffiti.
Similarly, her work was showing a compulsion to save items she would find in garbage cans or lying beside the curb.
In the 1980s Vivian would face another challenge with her work. Financial stress and lack of stability would once again put her processing on hold and the color Ektachrome rolls began to pile. Sometime between the late 1990’s and the first years of the new millennium, Vivian would put down her camera and keep her belongings in storage while she tried to stay afloat. She bounced from homelessness to a small studio apartment which a family she used to work for helped to pay. With meager means, the photographs in storage became lost memories until they were sold off due to non-payment of rent in 2007. The negatives were auctioned off by the storage company to RPN Sales, who parted out the boxes in a much larger auction to several buyers including John Maloof."
I suppose we'll never know for certain but the cost could have been a real factor limiting her developing and printing, as opposed to eccentricity or disinterest.
PS.
Just read that she did about 5,000 prints... a fraction. It'd be interesting if we could compare these to those processed by others to see if there's any significant difference other than we'd expect due to changes in style and subject over time.
A movie about this mysterious photographer was nominated for an Oscar
www.lensculture.com
"Besides the negatives, there are about 5,000 vintage prints that Maier made between 1965-1973, when she was living in Chicago. During those years, she was a nanny and living in the house of the family she worked for. She had her own bedroom and bathroom and transformed her bathroom into a personal darkroom. This was the first and last time she had access to a darkroom in her life."
PPS.
I'm not into street photography at all but some of VM's pictures are IMO just stunning and have influenced how I take people pictures.
I have the greatest regard for the images I have seen by VM. It has been said by the buyer of some of her negatives that each film was like a record of her walk that day and each shot was a one-off (no multiple attempts to get it right). She definitely had an eye for an image.
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