Wednesday 1 October 2014

Who Took Nanny's Pictures

At work, I spend most of my days working alongside Ray, a fellow graphic designer, and a talented drummer (he's in a 60's inspired band called The Everglows, definitely worth a listen). Between us we are responsible for all of the graphics related stuff for our company, drawing up the model specs, researching vehicles, designing the artworks and creating any advertising that may need doing. All of this is done to a soundtrack of 6 Music and conversions about interesting TV & films we have watched, our mutual love of 60's music and culture, books we have read, photography or just the day to day stuff and nonsense of our lives. We don't always agree on everything, but we do both agree we love watching a good documentary and so when Ray recommends something I have missed, I always know that it's going to be worth checking out.

It is one of Ray's recommendations (that could be a feature of its very own) which is the basis of today's post, he told me about an episode of BBC's Imagine, which featured the story of recently discovered photographer Vivian Maier. Having never heard of Vivian before I was intrigued so after little internet biased searching I found a link to the show in question and was amazed by what I saw so I thought I would share!


As much as it's wonderful that we get to see her beautiful captivating images of mid-century Chicago, I can't help feeling its such a shame that Vivian was not able to see what an effect her images have had on the art world, and lets face it for her rather than art dealer to profit from her talent. Though I do wonder, being the compulsive photographer that she was and having never really shown anyone her images, if she would have been horrified by the attention they are now receiving? Her photography appears to have been as much a passion as an obsession, would she really want the world to be in on her secret, I guess we will never know.

To see more of Vivian's work from one of the many owners of her work at vianmaier.com

Wendy x

6 comments:

  1. Look great, well done Ray! :)

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  2. How fascinating! Thanks for sharing :-D

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  3. Her photographs took my breath away - she was a genius. And how sad that she never knew what an impact they have had. I'm so inspired by her style of photography. Thanks Wendy.

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  4. Thanks Joe! I'll let him know :-)

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  5. Thanks Liza, glad you liked it! ;-)

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  6. Thanks Theodora! They are stunning aren't they, she certainly had an eye for beautiful composition and interesting subjects, so glad you enjoyed it! ;-)

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