Seven years ago while in the pursuit of images for his book, historian and filmmaker John Maloof came across a box of negatives. Initially he assumed they were the run-of-the-mill happy snaps he’d so often seen during a childhood spent at flea markets and auction houses.
But when he started scanning the negatives, he realised they were actually the work of a very gifted photographer – Vivian Maier. The documentary Finding Vivian Maier traces Maloof’s steps as he discovers who this woman was and why the public had never before seen her sizable collection of extraordinary photos.
Maier worked as a nanny for many wealthy families in Chicago from 1956 onwards. Through interviews with her former employers and their children, we learn that Maier was an intensely private person who presented herself in various ways with multiple different accents and names while also revealing conflicting details of her past. Her wards also tell us that her lengthy career as a nanny afforded her the freedom to pursue her love of photography without the boundaries of a more conventional occupation.
Not surprisingly, this is not the first documentary using Maier as a subject. The BBC made its own version of her story, Who Took Nanny’s Pictures?, in 2013. Several books and articles have also investigated this intriguing figure and prints of her photographs have sold for as much as US$8,000.
The groundswell of interest around Maier and her photographs, combined with the fact she only has distant living relatives, gives rise to a number of issues around the posthumous rights of artists – issues from which this film shies away. Since Maloof is only one of three people to own photographs by Maier, one could be forgiven for questioning his motivations behind making this documentary.
Regardless of these muddy moral issues and despite the film posing more questions than it answers, this documentary succeeds in making the captivating tale that is Maier’s life even more intriguing.
3.5/5 stars
Finding Vivian Maier opens in cinemas Thursday October 30.
