Vivian Maier, photographe de rue

Ce matin, petite balade sur internet et découverte émerveillée de l’univers d’une photographe un brin mystérieuse, Vivian Maier. Cette artiste, inconne jusque là, découverte par le photographe John Maloof, a pratiqué la photo de rue entre les années 50 et 70 d’abord à New York puis à Chicago.
John a ouvert un blog regroupant quelques images de Vivian, (http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com) où vous pourrez Découvrir un fragment de son travail. En attendant reproduit ci dessous, l’explication par John Maloof de son extraordinaire découverte. Il semblerait en tous cas que la dame soit française, ou ait vécue en France…

Vivian Maier 1926-2009

I acquired Vivian’s negatives while at a furniture and antique auction. From what I know, the auction house acquired her belongings from her storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. I didn’t know what ‘street photography’ was when I purchased them.

It took me days to look through all of her work. It inspired me to pick up photography myself. Little by little, as I progressed as a photographer, I would revisit Vivian’s negatives and I would « see » more in her work. I bought her same camera and took to the same streets soon to realize how difficult it was to make images of her caliber. I discovered the eye she had for photography through my own practice. Needless to say, I am attached to her work.

After some researching, I have only little information about Vivian. I cannot find any relatives or heirs after a diligent search.

Central Camera (110 yr old camera shop in Chicago) has encountered Vivian from time to time when she would purchase film while out on the Chicago streets. From what they knew of her, they say she was a Jewish Refugee from wartime France who came to the U.S. in the early 1950′s (some of her earlier work shows New York where she must have resided for some time). They say she was a very « keep your distance from me » type of person but was also outspoken. She loved foreign films and didn’t care much for American films.

Some of her photos have pictures of children and often times it was near a beach. I later found out she was a nanny for a family on the North Side whose children these most likely were. Her obituary says she lived in Oak Park, a close Chicago suburb.

Out of the 30-40,000 negatives I have in the collection, about 10-15,000 negatives were still in rolls, undeveloped from the 1960′s-1970′s. I have been successfully developing these rolls. I still have about 600 rolls yet to develop. I must say, it’s very exciting for me. Most of her negatives that were developed in sleeves have the date and location penciled in French (she had poor penmanship).

I found her name written with pencil on a photo-lab envelope. I decided to ‘Google’ her about a year after I purchased these only to find her obituary placed the day before my search. She passed only a couple of days before my inquiry on her.

Chicago Tribune’s obituary said she was a « second mother to John, Lane and Matthew ». After contacting the Chicago Tribune to find out who placed the obituary, I was led to an address on the North Side that didn’t exist and a phone number that was disconnected. Were John, Lane and Matthew the children she would nanny on the North Side?

I wanted to meet her in person well before I found her obituary but, the auction house had stated she was ill, so I didn’t want to bother her. So many questions would have been answered if I had.