Finding Vivian Maier

I admit I envy John Maloof, who discovered the work and negatives of Vivian Maier, because he has found his purpose. Over the coming years, more and more of her work will become available through Maloof's exploration of the archive. I wonder if it is almost too intense for him to bear.

The first U.S. exhibition of Maier's photos was recently completed at the Chicago Cultural Center, and I squeaked in just before it closed.

As a show, it was very understated, which seems appropriate. Two rooms, a single row of photos on six walls, a case in the center of each room holding a few objects from Maier's life.


The wall to the left holds six self-portraits.


The two at left play with Maier's shadow, including the outline of her hat, which has become part of her signature.


Some of the hats occupied one of the cases. The whole exhibit had such a feeling of grayscale or generally muted tones that the green hat was surprising and interruptive to me.


This is a closeup of one of the self portraits, with Maier reflected in a sprinkler head.


This one is from her younger, hatless years.

A couple of favorites from the show:


There are a lot of legs in Maier's work, but these two pairs are particularly evocative.


This is my favorite of all, through some combination of the boy's challenging expression, the glasses that mark him as a misfit, the fact that he's playing in the dirt with a stick, and, of course, his hat. It was shot while Maier was on a trip to Canada.


The other case held a few of her cameras and these rolls of film. I'm not sure if these are some of the undeveloped ones or not.

All and all, a tantalizing glimpse of Vivian Maier's huge body of work.