Review of Finding Vivian Maier (2014) by Esteban G — 21 Feb 2015

"The history of street photography is being rewritten.".

John Maloof's life changed when he bought a box full of old negatives in a local auction house. He was simply trying to find old pictures of his neighborhood for a history book, but what he got in return was more than he bargained for. He discovered these amazing street photographs taken by a woman named Vivian Maier and started posting them on his blog. Eventually the photos began getting some recognition and Maloof decided to start digging into this person's past and figuring out who she was and why she never developed all those negatives. Using the archive footage from the negatives he began piecing together certain elements of Vivian's past. Through interviews of people who knew Vivian years ago, Maloof tries to understand what motivated this mysterious woman to take these brilliant photographs. His first mission was to get her beautiful pictures artistically recognized, and once he does he begins to try to solve the enigmatic mystery of her past. The documentary works extremely well as this mysterious character study that begins to take form through Vivian's photographs and interviews with the few people that actually had interacted with her when she worked as a nanny for a number of families in New York. Finding Vivian Maier stands out from other documentaries in that it is narrated extremely well with the mystery element surrounding Vivian's life. The fact that this woman was fortunately discovered by Maloof and brought to the public's attention is quite fascinating. I'm no photography expert, but the pictures look amazing and there is no question Maier was a talented artist. Big props to John Maloof for making such an amazing discovery and doing such great investigative work.