Vivian Maier, street photographer and nanny

This is an astonishing story about a nanny who worked for families on the North Shore in Chicago and on her days off would wander around the city taking photographs.

A 27 year old stumbles upon a box of negatives at an auction---30,000 in all and buys them for $400. After looking at the box he went back and bought the other boxes---100,000 negatives in all.

This is stunning stuff.

 

Fascinating stuff. There's another video that's about 6 minutes-plus long with a collection of her photos. She was excellent.

 

Yeah, saw that as well. Would love to see that exhibition in Chicago.

 

Tremendous. What wonderful photos.

 

Phenomenal.

 

Neat story. I'm going to try to go check out the exhibition.

Should have time in the next week or so.

 

Let us know what you think

 

Will do.

As an aside, if anyone is ever in Chicago, I highly recommend a visit to the Cultural Center, regardless if this exhibition is running.

It's a beautiful building.



It has two incredible glass domes, one by Healy and Millet in the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial:



And one by Tiffany:



It's on Michigan Ave, right across from Millennium Park. There's always neat exhibits, and, best of all -- it's free!

http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/supporting_narrative/attractions/dca_tourism/Chicago_Cultural_Center.html

 

I have to say that the half dozen times I've been to Chicago, I have absolutley loved it. Kinda a bit like Toronto---with better architecture.

 

Toronto reminded me of Chicago.

Big lively cities, with a good downtown core, and lots of neat neighborhoods to explore.

Lots of live entertainment & culture in both.

One of the nice things about the cultural center is that as a tourist, you're likely to be nearby anyway. You can do it quickly if you have to, or linger if you have time. And, because it's free, you don't feel bad about rushing in, checking out the two domes, and leaving.

It's funny, the last time my parents were in town, I tried to take them by for a quick visit, knowing we didn't have a lot of time before they'd want to rest up/clean up before dinner.

I puled up to the south (Washington St.) entrance and my dad decided he wanted to go to the hotel instead.

The next day, he expresses a desire to go to the old library building on Michigan Ave. (which is now the Cultural Center). I had to explain to him that I had tried to take him there the day before.

He insisted that we were talking about different buildings.

We weren't. We went that day & my parents really enjoyed it.

 

Exhibit coming to the Chicago History Museum in September:

http://www.chicagohs.org/planavisit/exhibitions/vivian-maiers-chicago

 

Missed this thread the first time around -- great stuff.

Thanks for the WTTW link, JR ... and some time when I'm back in Chicago, I'll have to look for this exhibit.

Some great slice-of-life photos.