Vivian Maier: Self Portrait Exhibition
Photograph (c) Dina Regine
Vivian Maier: Self Portraits
Glass case with Vivian Maier's Rollei and small color prints
Curator Frances Vignola and Filmmaker Collector John Maloof
Also showing, Vivian Maier's unpublished work
An exhibition of self-portraits by recently discovered street photographer Vivian Maier made from 1950 – 1976 are on view at Howard Greenberg Gallery to January 4, 2014. The exhibition coincides with the publication of the book Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits (powerHouse Books, November 2013) that surveys Maier’s self-portraits, many of which are being shown and published for the first time.
The story of Vivian Maier has practically become a photography legend: Born in New York City in 1926, she spent much of her youth in France. Returning to the U.S. in 1951, she worked as a nanny in Chicago and New York for 40 years. Reclusive and eccentric, she took pictures all the time, yet never showed them to anyone. From the 1950s to the 1990s, with a Rolleiflex dangling from her neck, she made over 100,000 images, primarily of people and cityscapes.
Maier’s massive body of work, which could have been destined for obscurity, was housed in a storage locker in Chicago for many years. Unbeknownst to her caretakers (three of the grown children she had looked after), the contents of her storage locker had been dispersed due to non-payment. Her negatives were discovered by Chicago-based realtor and historian John Maloof at an auction house in Chicago in 2007. Maloof pieced together the identity of the mysterious photographer, but Vivian Maier died in 2009, before Maloof was able to speak with her. In the years that followed, Maloof has brought her work to the attention of the art world and the general public; and since 2010, nearly 20 exhibitions of photographs by Vivian Maier have been mounted in the U.S. and Europe. Numerous critics have written that her work will be remembered as some of the best 20th-century street photography.
Vivian Maier: Self-Portrait at Howard Greenberg Gallery is the first exhibition to explore the photographer’s numerous self-portraits and the first U.S. gallery exhibition of her color work.
The story of Vivian Maier has practically become a photography legend: Born in New York City in 1926, she spent much of her youth in France. Returning to the U.S. in 1951, she worked as a nanny in Chicago and New York for 40 years. Reclusive and eccentric, she took pictures all the time, yet never showed them to anyone. From the 1950s to the 1990s, with a Rolleiflex dangling from her neck, she made over 100,000 images, primarily of people and cityscapes.
Maier’s massive body of work, which could have been destined for obscurity, was housed in a storage locker in Chicago for many years. Unbeknownst to her caretakers (three of the grown children she had looked after), the contents of her storage locker had been dispersed due to non-payment. Her negatives were discovered by Chicago-based realtor and historian John Maloof at an auction house in Chicago in 2007. Maloof pieced together the identity of the mysterious photographer, but Vivian Maier died in 2009, before Maloof was able to speak with her. In the years that followed, Maloof has brought her work to the attention of the art world and the general public; and since 2010, nearly 20 exhibitions of photographs by Vivian Maier have been mounted in the U.S. and Europe. Numerous critics have written that her work will be remembered as some of the best 20th-century street photography.
Vivian Maier: Self-Portrait at Howard Greenberg Gallery is the first exhibition to explore the photographer’s numerous self-portraits and the first U.S. gallery exhibition of her color work.
Vivian Maier: Self-Portrait
Exhibition: Nov 7 – January 4, 2014
Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY
Exhibition: Nov 7 – January 4, 2014
Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY
Vivian Maier: Self-Portraits
Photographs by Vivian Maier, Edited by John Maloof
Essay by Elizabeth Avedon. Published by powerHouse Books
Photographs by Vivian Maier, Edited by John Maloof
Essay by Elizabeth Avedon. Published by powerHouse Books
(Text courtesy Howard Greenberg Gallery)
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