Finding Vivian Maier

Dir(s). John Maloof and Charlie Siskel

Director John Maloof was writing a history book when he felt he might need archival photographs to accompany the text. Attending an auction where sundry items were sold, Maloof discovers a cache of photographs and negatives he believes might aid him in his writing project. Unaware of what he might find, he looked over the negatives to discover extraordinary photography by a woman named Vivian Maier. Astounded by his discovery, he learns of a storage unit Maier kept, which Maloof acquires. Maloof also discovers Maier was deceased and was warned she photographer was a pack-rat. What he found inside may the first cultural discovery of this new century. Among odd collections of items like shoes and newspaper clippings were Maier's thousands of rolls of undeveloped photographs and film footage.

Excited by his find, Maloof went about contacting museums and professional photographers in an attempt to make her work known. It also inspired him to make Finding Vivian Maier, an absorbing documentary of an amazing talent whose work was very nearly consigned to oblivion if not for Maloof's efforts.

With some sleuthing, Maloof is also able to track down Maier's former employers and their children, who she served in a nanny capacity. We learn Maier spoke with a french accent, never married and was very eccentric. She covered her body in layers of clothing and always had a camera around her neck. Former children in her care describe outings where Vivian spent time photographing people and things and sometimes herself.

Her photographs capture reality; often the gritty honesty of people and places or objects. She was drawn to the downtrodden and the physically unglamorous and we learn from an employer she empathized with the poor and socially marginalized, who were also captured in her stunning photographs.

As for Vivian herself, what emerges also is a portrait of a very mysterious woman who not only had her peculiarities but dark episodes which sometimes degenerated into violence. A woman once in Maier's care recalls how Maier once held her down on the floor, her hands around the girl's neck; force-feeding her food. Another remembers her pathological fear of men and an incident where Maier felt herself threatened by a man's harmless gesture which led her to attack him, subjecting him to a concussion and hospitalization. Another bizarre idiosyncrasy was her french accent, which an acquaintance with an advanced degree in linguistics revealed as fake. The director turns to a genealogist in New York City to trace Maier's past only to discover she was born in New York. Though her mother was french, it becomes clear the linguist's claim bore the weight of legitimacy. Those who knew her say she was fiercely private; deflecting any and all questions about her past.

Whatever Maier truly was is up for speculation but the excellence of her work is beyond question. Though Maloof brings her work to the attention of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and some other museums of renown, his discovery is met with interest but a shocking lack of action. Undeterred, Maloof organizes his own exhibitions, which are received with enthusiasm and wonder by attendees.

Time will tell if Maier's work will join the canon of photographic masters but it almost seems a certainty, given one expert's high appraisal of her work. We the audience are rewarded by Maloof's efforts to tell Maier's extraordinary story. Hopefully her name will become household, but if not, it won't be for the lack of Maloof's passionate labor.