Imagine: Vivian Maier (BBC Documentary)

[Firky]

Did anyone watch Imagine last night (Alan Yentob thing), which had a feature on the recently discovered photographer, Vivian Maier?

Jesus f'ing christ... I reassessed my favourite! She instantly knocked my favourite street photographer Garry Winogrand off top spot. She's probably the best photography I have seen in my life, her kill rate is phenomenal. No endless shots of the same person or subject, just one done in an instant then move on. All done in the wild too, no safe studios or rehearsed poses, just spot and click.

Highly recommend viewing... even if you're not into photography you'll see some of the best photos ever taken. It's really interesting and quite sad.

New favourite photographer!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0366jd5

The incredible story of a mysterious nanny who died in 2009 leaving behind a secret hoard - thousands of stunning photographs. Never seen in her lifetime, they were found by chance in a Chicago storage locker and auctioned off cheaply.
Now Vivian Maier has gone viral and her magical pictures sell for thousands of dollars. Vivian was a tough street photographer, a secret poet of suburbia. In life she was a recluse, a hoarder, spinning tall tales about her French roots. Presented by Alan Yentob, the film includes stories from those who knew her and those who revealed her astonishing work

 

[weltweit]

Yes, I think she has been mentioned on here already some while ago, great photographer such a shame she hid her images away while she was alive.

I will try and watch the program if I can.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

Totally missed this, thanks for the heads up

 

[Firky]

I had seen some of her work doing the rounds on photography websites but only really her candid portraits, and had heard her story - but last nights doc was brilliant. It showed a lot of work that I have never seen on TV before and spoke to people in the photos and visited the places she took them, as well as exploring her as a person. Was excellent.

 

[weltweit]

I see your link lets me watch it.
I will check it out later when I have an hour.

 

[Gingerman]

Cuntybollox missed this,looks like a job for iPlayer....

 

[RoyReed]

Its was fantastic - a real find. It's definitely one for iPlayer if you missed it.

 

[blossie33]

Thanks for that, will definitely watch it on the iplayer ..

I went to an exhibition of her photos in Kings Cross a couple of years ago. I really love her work.

 

[weltweit]

Watching it now, I do think looking down as she did into her Rolliflex not having to look directly at the people she was photographing meant she would have been far less threatening than if she had for example held a 35mm up to her face. Perhaps people did not even know she was photographing them.

Wonder why no one has made a digital camera you can look down into like that, could be great for street photography.

 

[weltweit]

And how sad that she lost all her negatives because she couldn't afford the bill of the storage place. Very sad.

 

[weltweit]

Very moving, a complicated person, she has to have interacted with many of her subjects not all I am sure but some because in some the subjects seem to be posing for her. What an eye for a striking photograph she had, a bit surreal that dealers with armed escorts were buying and selling her pictures at knock down prices, if I understood correctly, even before her death. And now some are making good money on the misfortune that she had when she lost her life's work.

 

[blossie33]

Just finished watching it, very interesting and quite sad in many ways, quite a mystery lady.

What an amazing eye she had for photographing people, views and objects. Perhaps you need to be a bit of a loner to see things that way.

 

[dweller]

oh will have to watch this, I just heard about her a month or so ago and was impressed by the photographs,
cheers

 

[weltweit]

I definitely think it could be easier to do street and candid photography with a Rolliflex like she had where you hold it at waist height and look down into the top of the camera. It would just not be so threatening as raising a camera up to your eye and pointing it at people. Why are there no digital cameras which you can use like a Rolliflex?

 

[lefteri]

I definitely think it could be easier to do street and candid photography with a Rolliflex like she had where you hold it at waist height and look down into the top of the camera. It would just not be so threatening as raising a camera up to your eye and pointing it at people. Why are there no digital cameras which you can use like a Rolliflex?

my sony nex has a screen you can fold out so it's horizontal = you can hold the camera at waist height and look down at the screen, it also tips the other way so you can hold it high up and still see the screen

 

[weltweit]

my sony nex has a screen you can fold out so it's horizontal = you can hold the camera at waist height and look down at the screen, it also tips the other way so you can hold it high up and still see the screen

I would like that - I think..

 

[Firky]

http://www.hasselblad.co.uk/

 

[weltweit]

http://www.hasselblad.co.uk/

It does look a very desirable object indeed, but I also know that I won't have the budget for it

 

[Gingerman]

A facinating programme to watch,it did a very good job of bringing to life someone who was a bit of an enigma, her photos captured such amazing snippets of time, memories and emotions she kept hidden away until after she is long gone,what a fantastic treasure trove of photographs to come across.

 

[Gingerman]

http://www.vivianmaier.com/portfolios/chicago/?show=thumbnails

 

[weltweit]

http://www.vivianmaier.com/portfolios/chicago/?show=thumbnails

She seems to have a nice stylish use of space in her images, none are really tight crops so you get the subject and also the background context of their environment. I wonder how close to her subjects she was.

I am convinced despite being an odd bird in some ways and hiding her photographic light under a bushel all her life as regards prints, while out with her camera she must have been quite extrovert friendly and also unthreatening to engage with so many people and get their acquiescence for her to create an image with them.

 

[Ms Ordinary]

She seems to have a nice stylish use of space in her images, none are really tight crops so you get the subject and also the background context of their environment.

Apparently in the photos she had printed, she tended to crop really tightly and just show the people in the centre of the photo.
some explanation about halfway down here

But she spent all her time looking at composing photos in the square viewfinder, so that must have affected how she saw things. I think she was still a master of the square format - but perhaps if we had only ever seen her photos as she printed them, no-one - including her - would ever have realised this.

Still a mystery as to what she thought she was doing, who (if anyone) she wanted to hand her photos down to, did she see herself creating some kind of document?

 

[Ms Ordinary]

 

[weltweit]

Interesting point about her cropping Ms Ordinary I hadn't realised she cropped, personally I liked the square format images with the context of the background. And of course square format also means no changing the camera's orientation for landscape or portrait.

 

[Biddlybee]

Just stumbled across this on iPlayer. Vivian Maier is/was fantastic. Missed it on telly (was too busy having a baby ), going to watch it now, along with the McCullin one

 

[Firky]

Just stumbled across this on iPlayer. Vivian Maier is/was fantastic. Missed it on telly (was too busy having a baby ), going to watch it now, along with the McCullin one

Check out the one on Richard Rogers too, very good.