Visual Diary: "Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work"

Back in October of 2009, I came across the captivating blog, “Vivian Maier - Her Discovered Work,” started by the Chicago based photographer John Maloof. If you haven’t already seen it, you should definitely check it out. Not only is this blog filled with beautiful old photographs of the streets of Chicago, it has an intriguing back-story as well.

Apparently Mr. Maloof acquired a collection of negatives while at a furniture and antique auction in Chicago. The auction house had previously acquired the negatives, along with other belongings, from a storage locker that was sold off due to delinquent payments. The locker belonged to a Ms. Vivian Maier, whom according to acquaintances was a nanny, a Socialist, a Feminist, a movie critic, and a tell-it-like-it-is type of person. Fascinating!

Even more intriguing, is that at the time of the auction, out of the 30-40,000 negatives that Mr. Maloof acquired, 10-15,000 negatives were still in rolls, undeveloped from the 1960's-1970's. Thankfully, John has since been successfully developing these rolls and documenting them on his blog for all of our lovely eyes to see! Overall, there are still about 600 rolls yet to be developed…yey for us!

Above, I’ve included just a few of the images that caught my eye, however there are many more to peruse and admire. So, be sure to check out additional images and learn more about the back-story here! It’ll be sure to inspire and intrigue. Enjoy!

{All images via the John Maloof Collection}