Meeting Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier is a great Street Photographer that only got famous after she died in 2009. Almost no-one even knew she was a photographer - working as a nanny, and being a woman, and as someone who didn't really share her passion, her work might have never been taken seriously while alive anyway. But in retrospect, she can measure herself to the likes of Henri Cartier-Bresson, a well-known and well-respected street photographer known from The Decisive Moment, a term used by street photographers to describe that perfect short fragment of time in which everything in a frame comes together to form that perfect shot.
Maier and Me
Now, Vivian Maier is fascinating to me in many ways: she was a women photographer in a time that men dominated that world, she was a nanny but secretly had a different passion she lived for, she probably had a form of autism (one of my specific interests as a behavioural scientist) and she made selfies before selfies were really a thing.
She saw herself in reflections of windows, mirrors, or even her own shadow, and she took a lot of self-portraits with her manual camera - all while bringing the kids she took care of from home to school - they are the ones who later told how dedicated she was as a photographer, never leaving the house without her camera.
Now, she also lived in New York City, a city that has always spoken to me creatively, and where I've felt at my best for several weeks over the years while taking pictures on the street. It's a city with endless possibilities and creative input, and I can only imagine how that city spoke to her as well.
My inner Maier
As said, she only very recently got famous. Literally weeks before she died a few boxes with her undeveloped film rolls were sold at an auction, and a historian made the discovery - posting her shots on the web. Although this caused some controversy and debates about ownership, her work at least finally got shown and spoken about - which is like a present to all of us.
When I discovered her work I realised I had unknowingly carried around an inner Maier with me every time I took my camera with me. Some of her work was recognizable to me - same sort of fascinations and sometimes very similar shots and angles. It's always amazing to discover a soul mate artist, and she's definitely an important one.
As an ode to her and as an excuse to show some more of my street photography I decided to start this series called My inner Vivian Maier.
The first shot in this series of 'My inner Maier' was probably taken in the same year she died - and thus when her work wasn't even seen by anyone, not even herself. (Let that sink in). I'm waiting for an elevator in the city of Groningen, and the ceiling is covered in mirrors. I looked up, saw the reflection and the black and white blocked flooring, and instinctively took the shot.
It's when and how my Inner Maier was born.
