A concise compendium of Vivian Maier's enduring images

With the discovery of her archive in a thrift auction house in 2007, Vivian Maier’s posthumous trajectory from relative obscurity to one of the great American photographers of the 20th century is a story of a singular consistent talent. From the mid 1950s throughout her adult life she worked as a nanny between New York and Chicago, and it was during this time that she created a huge body of photographs and films recording every day street life, often including her own self portrait and moments of fleeting reflection within the cityscape. With her work compared to Helen Levitt, Robert Frank and Diane Arbus, her photographs are a fascinating window into American life.

About the Author:

Anne Morin is the director of diChroma Photography in Madrid.

The perfect primer on American photographer, photojournalist and filmmaker Ruth Orkin

Ruth Orkin (1921–85) always dreamed of becoming a filmmaker, and although that ambition was thwarted until later in her career, she quickly found other ways of engaging with the world of images. She was given her first camera at the age of ten and by the age of seventeen, she was cycling across America from Los Angeles to New York, documenting her trip in albums of annotated photographs. In the early 1940s she settled in New York, joining the Photo League and making her name with photo stories for major magazines such as Life, Look and This Week.

In images that range from celebrity portraits to bird’s-eye views from her apartment window, from children at play to the experiences of a lone American tourist in Italy, Orkin’s photography always retains a cinematic sense of the passage of time and allows the humanity and charisma of her subjects to shine through.

About the Author:

Anne Morin is the director of diChroma photography (www.dichroma-photography.com), a company specializing in international travelling photography exhibitions and the development and production of cultural projects. She is the co-author of Vivian Maier, also published by Thames & Hudson.

A full-career retrospective on the work of Vivian Maier, bringing together a selection of key works from throughout her life and career

When Vivian Maier’s archive was discovered in Chicago in 2007, the photography community gained an immense and singular talent. Maier lived in relative obscurity until her death in 2009, but is now the subject of films and books, and recognized as one of the great American photographers of the 20th century.

Born in New York in 1926, Vivian Maier worked as a nanny in New York and Chicago for much of her adult life. It was during her years as a nanny that she took many of the photographs that have made her posthumously famous. Maier’s incredible body of work consists of more than 150,000 photographic images, Super 8 and 16 mm films, various recordings and a multitude of undeveloped films. Working primarily as a street photographer, Maier’s work has been compared with such luminaries as Helen Levitt, Robert Frank, Diane Arbus and Joel Meyerowitz. Drawing on previously unpublished archives and recent scientific analyses, this retrospective sheds new light on Maier’s work. With texts by Anne Morin and Christa Blümlinger, this thorough look at Maier’s entire archive is organized thematically in sections that cover self-portraits, the street, portraits, gestures, cinematography, children, colour work and forms.

A valuable addition to the continuing assessment of Maier’s work, this book is a one-volume compendium of her most enduring images.

About the Authors:

Anne Morin is the director of diChroma Photography in Madrid. Christa Blümlinger teaches cinematography at the University of Paris VIII, specializing in documentary cinema and the avant-garde. Ann Marks is a writer and Vivian Maier’s biographer. She lives in New York.