Finding Vivian Maier

John Maloof purchased a box of negatives at a flea market.  Two years later he started developing the photographs and was impressed with he found.  Knowing only the photographer's name, Vivian Maier, he was curious about her body of work.  He started scanning the negatives and uploading them to a Flickr account, which garnered a great deal of interest.

He soon discovered that Maier had recently died and was given access to her storage unit.  The unit was filled with thousands of undeveloped photographs and packed with boxes of trinkets from her life; she was a pack rat that never got rid of anything.  Maier worked as a nanny for decades, always with a camera around her neck.  Interviews with the families she worked for, revealed that she was an extremely private person with a unique perspective on the world.


I first heard about this film when it was nominated for Best Documentary Feature for the 2015 Academy Awards.  In my effort to watch as many nominees as possible, I added it to my Netflix queue and was delighted to cross another film off my list.  It is an interesting subject, trying to figure out who a person was based on their body of work, the possessions left behind, and the people that were in their lives.

I don't know anything about photography, but you can't help but feel something when her photographs appear on the screen.  She saw something interesting in people and captured it.  Is it important to know the photographer to appreciate the photographs?  Probably not, but I understand John Maloof's desire to know more about Virginia Maier.

The interviews show a private woman, who never really let anyone in.  People saw different sides to her, and not all of their memories are positive.  She may have suffered from a mental illness... these are little tidbits that show more about the woman, but don't change the quality and fascination of her work.  Everyone agrees that she would not enjoy the publicity and definitely would not like that Maloof and Charlie Siskel investigated her life.

At the end of the day, we will never know why she didn't show her work... but now it is on display across the country (and in France) for millions of people to see and appreciate.

Finding Vivian Maier (2013) 83 minutes
Director: John Maloof & Charlie Siskel