Wednesday 6 August 2014

When your're dead.



The local cinema showed Finding Vivian Maier for one night only last night.  6.30 Sold out. Work of art. Fair play to John Maloof for exposing her.  She does rank alongside Diane Arbus, Cartier -Bresson and the greats but even greater. Maybe Mr. Maloof might risk overexposure. She used her job as a cover as a means of survival, a really single minded formidable independent individual a genius seven foot tall with a goose - step march and a sense of humour.  Striking appearance I think she was described as looking like a 1950s Russian factory worker. Throw away the phone. Chuck out your digital cameras. Return to film. Keep your corner shop chemist in business. 

6 comments:

  1. Thanks for this, David. I know her story but looking forward to the film. Agree 100% with you about film versus digital. The latter, undeniably clever and has it's uses, but for me there's a quality in the old black and white roll film that can't be matched.

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  2. I just saw the film last night. Good stuff. But it also raised additional questions. What about the two guys who helped get (and pay) for her apartment toward the end of her life? Did they decline to be on film? Have you seen the BBC documentary? They talk to other people who bought her film at an auction (Maloof declined because he was making his documentary).

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    1. You mean you haven't bought the tea towel yet? Just a matter of time before the fridge magnet....actually yes I wondered about the involvement of the two apartment owners.

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  3. I still shoot film and process it at home, though not lately, as we're rationing water. (Calif./drought) Maier does belong in the pantheon of greats. Her story has some parallels to Henry Darger, another Chicago recluse/mystery whose landlord took possession of his entire body of work after his death.

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    1. Hello Michael - yes I remember seeing Henry Darger's work for the first time around 1988/89 in an exhibition at Manchester's Cornerhouse gallery, creepy wonderful work. Must be something in Chicago's water.... Meanwhile drink beer and use a Polaroid, stay dirty.

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  4. I live in Chicago and will be sure to drink my daily requirement of water. Although I hope that I don't end up a recluse discovered at the very end of my life (in a small room surrounded by drawings).

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