Luminous Landscape Forum
The Art of Photography => The Coffee Corner => Topic started by: PeterAit on October 15, 2020, 10:35:41 am
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Despite decades in photography, I had never heard of Vivian Maier. She was a marvelous street photographer and is well worth a serious look. And there's a film, "Finding Vivian Maier," that documents her "discovery" and is well worth watching.
http://www.vivianmaier.com/
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She's very good. I admire her work too. The people who have printed her photos did a very good job. The tones and printing are very rich. I also think the age she photographed is old enough to be interesting just in itself. Seeing ladies all dressed up in their furs brings back memories I had growing up in NYC where she mostly took her photos.
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In the last 10 years, there were literally thousands of articles and documentaries about Vivian Maier.
49 posts about her on Lula alone, and not all complimentary.
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?action=search2;params=eJwtj8FqwzAQRH-l9NLLO1je1Sr-iF57NYq8EBfXLoqbUvDHVwm5LDOPWYbJ0y2vxafj7QjH63GuD9VjQhBUkIAMaEIVjVigHQI9caCFDD2hmBITfUSUoEhEOzRgHSERBnpDBGvPhiXshA2krnVeL9vvWLav78V3b-139HP-9LKP27r8PclW93Gaa3OTX8uTNFd98ceEO_Jcy6XBj_k25_XlPc9e_wGcFUO2;start=30
by RSL
I think Vivian, like most of us who tote a camera, was a mixed bag. She shot some good ones and she shot some crap. Most of the shots of the kids for whom she was caring are pure tourist shots. Most of her abstractions (but not all) are junk. A bunch of her shots of people on the street are fobbed off as street photography by people who don't understand street photography. But then, there's the occasional shot that's good enough to be shown, and, once in a while a shot upon which she could have built a reputation. I suspect the poor woman is spinning in her grave. To me, the real question is: what would she have round-filed and what would she have selected to show had she been able to make the selections herself. I'd be willing to bet the final count would have been much smaller than what I'm seeing in the books I have of her stuff.
https://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?topic=88922.msg725493#msg725493
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If you publish a photo book, you'd be very discriminating and pick your best street shots. Mosts shots even by pros are bad or at least non-consequential.