Self-portrait

gelatin silver print

photographer's collection stamp, signed (John Maloof), date, print date, numbered on verso.

Vivian Maier comes from an American immigrant family with Austrian and French roots. She was an ambitious amateur photographer: during her lifetime, she took more than 100.000 pictures in New York and Chicago. Nobody knew about her great passion. She lived a lonely life as nanny and housekeeper. Her estate was only found after her death and she received international attention through the award-winning film “Finding Vivian Maier” by John Maloof.

“The observer of social inequity precisely perceives how children […] are already characterized in habitus and expression of their origin. Her view of women is softer, more understanding than her view of men. Her preferred detail is the medium long shot, persons from higher social classes are – covert and unnoticed – sometimes from below, captured from above, fallen from the social network. But she likes best to point her camera directly at the pictured persons.” (Meret Ernst, 2016)

A recurring motive of her photographs is her own image in the reflection of a mirror or a shop window. She thereby locates herself in the world documented by her, shows herself as small, mute part of it. The usually quietly and secretly living woman becomes visible, writes herself into the story told by her. (Christoph Fuchs 2019)