Vivian Maier Doc on BBC

RaglanSurf

RaglanSurf

Suspended / Banned
Messages
11,477
Name
Nick
Edit My Images
Yes
Definitely one to watch, I really love her work.

Andy
 
I enjoyed that. Especially some of her landscapes which were composed of 1/6th horizontal and 5/6ths vertical (or thereabouts) really striking.
 
Bloody hell she was good!

The saddest thing was that she kept all those photos hidden away. If only a fraction had got out she would have had a very comfortable life.

It truly was inspirational and she is without doubt one of the greatest photographer's of the Twentieth Century. And although mentioned more or less as an afterthought her hit rate was phenomenal.

To all who missed it - get onto it.

I hope the rest of the series is as good.
 
Okay, I'll have a watch.

There's an interesting thread on APUG at the moment with several posters saying that what she did was not particularly stunning or ground breaking compared to her contemporaries... food for thought.
 
Its a series, called Imagine, BBC 1 10:35pm this week its about Don McCullin, photojournalist
 
Last edited:
freecom2 said:
Okay, I'll have a watch.

There's an interesting thread on APUG at the moment with several posters saying that what she did was not particularly stunning or ground breaking compared to her contemporaries... food for thought.
Click to expand...

I think I'd agree that what she did was mostly candid photography, a lot of street photography, and mostly of people.

The description of her technique with a TLR suggests strongly that mostly she was shooting without the consent of the subject and "from the hip" certainly thoughtfully and carefully composed and framed but not with the benefit of posed subjects.

Is it appropriate therefore to make comparisons with studio photographers or even professional photographers supported with assistants? Probably not. Were there other "candid" photographers working at the same time? Well I'm not knowledgeable enough to answer that but what I took away from the programme was an observation of a private individual busily taking photographs of people and places around her and entirely for her own ineterest and, with that, I can identify.
 
interesting and very depressing at the same time. To think that she was still alive when they were picking over her storage containers is a bit sad.

Film couldn't of been cheap back then so she must of been getting money somewhere once the nanny job dried up and she didn't even develop a small mountain of it!

Is she any different to people today though, just clicking away for their own happiness, the majority of it being some very nice snaps with some lovely portraits in the mix. It wasn't really explained just why she is held in such high regard other than the freakish fact people stumbled across thousands of rolls of her film. The bald street photographer guy didnt really impress me with his narrative, it would of been nice to have someone just explain things a bit more about the content of her work.
 
tikkathreebarrel said:
Is it appropriate therefore to make comparisons with studio photographers or even professional photographers supported with assistants? Probably not.
Click to expand...

Yup. But...

Were there other "candid" photographers working at the same time?
Click to expand...

Cartier-Bresson, Doisneau, Brassai (the doc touched upon the MOMA exhibit that Maier may have visited at the time: http://www.moma.org/docs/press_archives/1573/releases/MOMA_1951_0091_1951-12-13_511213-77.pdf?2010), for New York/America you have Robert Frank, Walker Evans, Bruce Davidson, Eliot Erwitt, and Garry Winogrand (whom I see many similarities with Maier in regards to output). I'd rank her as up there with the greats - her compositions may not be as intricate as HCB's, but like many great photographers who took photos of people, she had the compassionate eye that could recognise and capture the micro dramas of human life. The passage of time makes everything more interesting too. Her mystique is both a help and a hinderance - on one hand, great story, on the other it looms over her work and it becomes a selling point for it. I found that approaching her work from a Barthes-esque 'death of the author' perspective was more satisfying.
 
"her compositions may not be as intricate as HCB's, but like many great photographers who took photos of people, she had the compassionate eye that could recognise and capture the micro dramas of human life."


Well said Lloyd.

Whatever else anybody thinks Vivian Maier's photos are imbued with humanity. While I would not decry the technical brilliance of Henri C B to me they lack the empathy that is almost overpowering in Maier's pictures. There is a hell of a lot more to a good picture than the hardware and the software and I think the "show us yer best picture" thread captures that exactly.

Without question there is a connect between three parties in each picture viewed:

Firstly Vivian Maier herself, secondly the subject and any story we care to concoct from that and third us the viewer. Her pictures link all three elements in a way I don't think I have recognised before. The first view draws you in.

These are magical works of art!

For those who disagree, in the words of the late Tony Wilson.........."you are entitled to an opinion......."
 
essexash said:
interesting and very depressing at the same time. To think that she was still alive when they were picking over her storage containers is a bit sad.

Film couldn't of been cheap back then so she must of been getting money somewhere once the nanny job dried up and she didn't even develop a small mountain of it!

Is she any different to people today though, just clicking away for their own happiness, the majority of it being some very nice snaps with some lovely portraits in the mix. It wasn't really explained just why she is held in such high regard other than the freakish fact people stumbled across thousands of rolls of her film. The bald street photographer guy didnt really impress me with his narrative, it would of been nice to have someone just explain things a bit more about the content of her work.
Click to expand...

She's held in high regard because she produced some amazing photo's.

Anyone can walk around with a camera and take photo's but there's not many people who've produced a collection of great photo's to that extent. And as explained in the documentary, it was rare for a women to be successful in that field in those days.

the bald guy was joel meyerowitz, his work is awesome! one of the greats for sure. However, I don't think it's so much his fault as the producers of the documentary, I don't think it was put together as well as it could have been, and as you say - as in depth as it could have been. However, it was still interesting.
 
Hm!

I have had a quick look at Meyerowitz and I find it lacking. Some of his work is no more than snaps. He's a bit take it or leave it for me and I cannot say that about Vivian Maier's work.
 
Unfortunately Ashley, Vivian Maier wasn't successful in her day - her photos did not see the light of day until after her death.
 
Very enjoyable - did not know she had taken a trip to Asia and had many photos from there, and I didn't know that there was actually a lot of trading of the negatives/prints at the start; Maloof had always painted it as his journey solely, rather than dealers and auctioneers and the like.

The inclusion of childhood friends and those who knew her in France were another great side.
 
freecom2 said:
Very enjoyable - did not know she had taken a trip to Asia and had many photos from there, and I didn't know that there was actually a lot of trading of the negatives/prints at the start; Maloof had always painted it as his journey solely, rather than dealers and auctioneers and the like.

The inclusion of childhood friends and those who knew her in France were another great side.
Click to expand...

I found the whole thing fascinating although did feel there was a little 'sniping' going on at Maloof, I don't really care about the rights and wrongs of how these people have acted, it's the woman and her photographs I'm interested in.

And tomorrow night it's Don McCullin :thumbs:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b036j3fp
 
Last edited:
"her compositions may not be as intricate as HCB's, but like many great photographers who took photos of people, she had the compassionate eye that could recognise and capture the micro dramas of human life."

Sums it up nicely;sometimes docs like that seem to drag on but I personally was riveted,her family history was pretty interesting too.

Nick,
That link says it's on tomorrow?
 
sparty said:
It is McCullin, the documentary movie.
Click to expand...

Which is epic. Out of all the tog docs ive seen - easily my favourite. Also, one of the truly genuine intimate portraits of a photographer, his/her thought processes etc. Can't wait to see it again. Saw it in the cinema a while back. So good.
 
I posted this in another thread elsewhere on the site...

I enjoyed it too, but I couldn't help thinking that there are too many commercial interests at stake for us to get a decent independent view of what her best work was. Because it is all published posthumously, and by those who own the images, we have no direction from her about which work she would have wanted to publish or not. Or indeed if she wanted any of it published at all. A very interesting aspect for me was the fact that she hadn't even developed a number of the rolls she took, so had no idea herself what the negatives looked like, never mind prints, and never got any of her work printed properly to a high standard. In a way, though, that was very telling: she was mainly doing this for herself, and like all good photographers, knew what the result would be without even having to see it (compare that with today's scattergun approach and obsessive chimping between frames).
 
TheGreatSoprendo said:
I posted this in another thread elsewhere on the site...

I enjoyed it too, but I couldn't help thinking that there are too many commercial interests at stake for us to get a decent independent view of what her best work was. Because it is all published posthumously, and by those who own the images, we have no direction from her about which work she would have wanted to publish or not. Or indeed if she wanted any of it published at all. A very interesting aspect for me was the fact that she hadn't even developed a number of the rolls she took, so had no idea herself what the negatives looked like, never mind prints, and never got any of her work printed properly to a high standard. In a way, though, that was very telling: she was mainly doing this for herself, and like all good photographers, knew what the result would be without even having to see it (compare that with today's scattergun approach and obsessive chimping between frames).
Click to expand...

Very good post. So glad I returned to film. Very happy to lose the scattergun.
 
trevorbray said:
Very good post. So glad I returned to film. Very happy to lose the scattergun.
Click to expand...

Cheers. I was talking to someone I know who was selling his dSLR which he'd only had 6 months and he was saying it had ONLY taken 15,000 shots. I told him that I probably haven't taken that many photographs in my life. :lol: Now I'm not saying mine are better than his - they probably aren't - but I'd be confident I have a much better hit-rate! Even just the thought of reviewing, processing or deleting thousands of photographs sends me to sleep.
 
Last edited:
How many photos one takes is a discipline irrespective of medium!

I think that enough Maier images have been released for us to get a good sense of her oeuvre, which really rocks. The context that she never sought fame or fortune through them confers an added dignity to them / her.
 
TheGreatSoprendo said:
Even just the thought of reviewing, processing or deleting thousands of photographs sends me to sleep.
Click to expand...

Same here. When I used to have a Nikon D100 I had a 512MB memory card with it which could hold 76 shots. I never got it much more than half full.


Steve.
 
TheGreatSoprendo said:
I couldn't help thinking that there are too many commercial interests at stake for us to get a decent independent view of what her best work was.
Click to expand...

Whilst this is true and is a very valid point, if there were no commercial interest, we would never have heard of her and the negatives would have probably gone to a rubbish dump.


Steve.
 
Of course there is a commercial slant, but equally those publishing her work are her discoverers and posthumous champions. Look me in the eye and tell me what YOU would have done.
 
Steve Smith said:
Whilst this is true and is a very valid point, if there were no commercial interest, we would never have heard of her and the negatives would have probably gone to a rubbish dump.


Steve.
Click to expand...

Yeah. But there is the possibility that is exactly what she wanted. We'll never know, of course. I agree that her work should be published, though I don't feel 100% comfortable with it because of the person she was, nor the commercial gain that surrounds it now.

As for looking you in the eye Rog, I don't know how I'd react, and I don't deny anyone the right to make an honest living. But I'd like to think I would be open about what I own, and make it all available to view, so others could make their minds up about its artistic merit. As things stand, it feels like the owners of the images are acting rather cloak and dagger, being selective about what to make public, and managing supply and demand carefully, to build mystique and reputation. If we make the assumption that Vivien would have wanted her work to be published, I can be pretty sure she wouldn't have wanted it done like this.
 
huxleypiggles said:
Unfortunately Ashley, Vivian Maier wasn't successful in her day - her photos did not see the light of day until after her death.
Click to expand...

I know. My point being that she was unknowingly succesful.

Some people take some things so literally.

huxleypiggles said:
Hm!

I have had a quick look at Meyerowitz and I find it lacking. Some of his work is no more than snaps. He's a bit take it or leave it for me and I cannot say that about Vivian Maier's work.
Click to expand...

Each to their own...
 
Last edited:
I should add, although not totally related.

I watched the McCullin documentary last night, and thought it was brilliant, hadn't heard the name before, but damn it was good.
 
SimonUK said:
I should add, although not totally related.

I watched the McCullin documentary last night, and thought it was brilliant, hadn't heard the name before, but damn it was good.
Click to expand...

I too watched that, very good indeed!

Meant to make a thread but forgot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top