New doc exposes photo-snapping nanny Vivian Maier

Via The Globe and Mail
PublishedSunday, Sep. 08 2013, 4:00 PM EDT
Last updatedMonday, Sep. 09 2013, 10:26 AM EDT


"Finding Vivian Maier represents the resumption of the quest. Not only is Maloof a major presence and voice in its 83 minutes, he’s also the film’s co-producer, co-writer and cinematographer. Poignant, not a little sad, occasionally disturbing, the documentary does a yeoman’s job filling in quite a few of the blanks in the Maier biography and, by extension, her photographic practice. Who knew she went on a solo, around-the-world trip in 1959? Or that she tried to go into the postcard business in France? Or that she could be “mean” to some of her young charges? Still, as Roy Orbison would put it, she’s very much “a mystery girl” and likely will remain that way. This is not an entirely bad state of affairs, especially for her art. The great thing about Maier initially was that she seemed to come out of nowhere to posthumously elbow her way near the top of the photographic class. All there was was the art – pure, mysterious, uncompromised by gossip, New Yorker profiles, tweets, visits by TV crews to her nursing home. What we knew is what she saw and we saw that it was good."