Vivian Maier - Street Photographer

  • Thread starter Deleted member 13178
  • Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Deleted member 13178

Guest
Saw this today, thought it might be of interest. Basically a woman who lived in Chicago and took thousands of photos of the people and the streets in the 50s, 60s and beyond. But she never showed anybody them.

Logon or register to see this image


Logon or register to see this image




Fast forward a few decades and some bloke picks them up at an auction house and decides to scan them all and process the undeveloped rolls of film, some of the photos are just stunning.

News video:

http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=42,8,80&pid=A1hO97qcWo7ViDL_rWniVH2LakYxNa7J

The Vivian Maier Blog:

http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

Love owt like this me.
 


andy m said:
Saw this today, thought it might be of interest. Basically a woman who lived in Chicago and took thousands of photos of the people and the streets in the 50s, 60s and beyond. But she never showed anybody them.

Logon or register to see this image


Logon or register to see this image




Fast forward a few decades and some bloke picks them up at an auction house and decides to scan them all and process the undeveloped rolls of film, some of the photos are just stunning.

News video:

http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=42,8,80&pid=A1hO97qcWo7ViDL_rWniVH2LakYxNa7J

The Vivian Maier Blog:

http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/

Love owt like this me.
Click to expand...

superb that like, very inspiring!

the gadgee in the hat looks a bit like you anarl :)
 
Great stuff, thanks for posting a link on here.
 
Quality stuff that like. I've tried street photography before but I just haven't got the balls to shove a camera in a random stranger's face! It's one of my favourite streams of photography.
 
i have a mate from manchester who is actually really good at the old street photography lark, check his stuff out here
 
ThankHeavenForShed 7 said:
Quality stuff that like. I've tried street photography before but I just haven't got the balls to shove a camera in a random stranger's face! It's one of my favourite streams of photography.
Click to expand...

I think you've just got to be brave, smile nicely (massive smile), and ask. I've summoned up the courage to do that a couple of times and people have, to my surprise, said yes.
 
clyde said:
superb that like, very inspiring!

the gadgee in the hat looks a bit like you anarl :)
Click to expand...
Haha, see what ya mean actually. :lol:

Street Photography, for me is the ultimate challenge although I guess once you got into it things would get easier. Think I'd probably find it OK in another country where I didn't have a chance of knowing anyone or feeling self conscious...
 
I've done a lot of street photography, mainly in China, Paris, Edinburgh and Houston. Once you can get over the nerves it's great fun.

Edit: Oh, and try to get over the nerves before the July competition starts. ;)
 
AB22 Easy Tiger said:
I've done a lot of street photography, mainly in China, Paris, Edinburgh and Houston. Once you can get over the nerves it's great fun.

Edit: Oh, and try to get over the nerves before the July competition starts. ;)
Click to expand...

aye, tried it myself too, a few times down london and once or twice up here, good fun, sometimes i just walk around with my camera around my neck and resting against my chest and just click away without anyone knowing, quite interesting to see the results and some of the angles of the pics.
 
clyde said:
aye, tried it myself too, a few times down london and once or twice up here, good fun, sometimes i just walk around with my camera around my neck and resting against my chest and just click away without anyone knowing, quite interesting to see the results and some of the angles of the pics.
Click to expand...

iirc you have an Olympus XA2, right? That's a great camera for street photography, extremely inconspicuous, especially without the flash unit and the logo covered.
 
You have to be careful of taking pictures abroad (Asia) because some of the people think you are stealing their soul. But you usually find a few "coin" works wonders!
 
Vivian Maier

Probably preaching to the converted here, but I've been late to the party with this one, as Andy M pointed out to me :)

anyway, have a look at this if you haven't seen this woman's work before

http://www.vivianmaier.com/

Some absolutely class 50's-60's street work. Inspirational. Back story is though, the lady was a nanny, and took over 100,000 photos - but NOT ONE was published whilst she was alive. All of her stuff was discovered after her death.

http://www.vivianmaier.com/about-vivian-maier/
 
The main thing that strikes me about her photos is the clarity. Everything is really sharp and clean, almost like digital, none of the period 'softness' that you'd get with Capa or HCB. Wonder if that's just a product of modern processing?
 
not spavin said:
The main thing that strikes me about her photos is the clarity. Everything is really sharp and clean, almost like digital, none of the period 'softness' that you'd get with Capa or HCB. Wonder if that's just a product of modern processing?
Click to expand...

Ironic that film still produces sharper images than digital for the same size frame ;)

Capa was always jiggling about too much for me
 
Icarebecauseyoudo said:
Ironic that film still produces sharper images than digital for the same size frame ;)

Capa was always jiggling about too much for me
Click to expand...

Think film renders softness better anarl. I was looking at shots from a Leica M6 v M8 recently, same lens and same shite person pressing the buttons. Found myself obsessing less about the M6 (film) shot's focus, cos it didn't seem to ruin the shot as much.
 
not spavin said:
Think film renders softness better anarl. I was looking at shots from a Leica M6 v M8 recently, same lens and same shite person pressing the buttons. Found myself obsessing less about the M6 (film) shot's focus, cos it didn't seem to ruin the shot as much.
Click to expand...

It's a fair point. Close focussing in digi makes me nervous about the background

Fortunately in my work it's not often required
 
not spavin said:
The main thing that strikes me about her photos is the clarity. Everything is really sharp and clean, almost like digital, none of the period 'softness' that you'd get with Capa or HCB. Wonder if that's just a product of modern processing?
Click to expand...

absolutely spot on spav, they are superb. Could be the modern processing, but the lass had an absolutely stunning eye. One of these people that could get a picture out of anything.

I just can't get my head round the fact that she kept it all to herself.
 
Iain Hesford's Bait Box said:
absolutely spot on spav, they are superb. Could be the modern processing, but the lass had an absolutely stunning eye. One of these people that could get a picture out of anything.

I just can't get my head round the fact that she kept it all to herself.
Click to expand...

She seemed to have a collection of high end cameras too. It's amazing that he shots didn't get an audience, everyone who knew her must've known she was taking photos regularly.

Incredible archive of the time like, could spend hours looking through her stuff.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Back
Top