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A Vivian Maier Self-Portrait


This is quite the mystery.

If it is a self portrait, it breaks all the known patterns. If you look at the self-portrait gallery in the Maloof collection, you see that all of them, safe one, are either mirror reflections, or shots of her shadow. Clearly, without going into deep psychoanalysis, this is what "self-portrait" meant to her: reflection or shadow.

As for gear, I've seen very few in the posted self-portrats that aren't with the Rollei.

Self-Portraits | Vivian Maier Photographer

Self Portraits Portfolio: As reclusive and private as Vivian Maier was, her self portrait photographs reveal a telling story. Thoughtfully posed, and often innovative, her self as a subject allows a depiction of her as she wants the world to see it.
www.vivianmaier.com

Interestingly, most of the color self-portraits are with a 35mm camera. This might mean that there was another pattern involved, i.e., 120 for black and white, 35mm for color.


If it's the case (anybody knows?), it would rule out Don's posted photo as a self-portrait: she was out shooting color that day. Unless, of course, she also had the Rollei and let someone else shoot.

There is a Maier book called Self-Portraits, which I don't have. It may hold other, different clues.

Helios 1984 said:
I doubt she’d bring kids with her, she was very protective of her alone time. When she clocked out, she clocked out.
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Here's a self-portrait (again, a reflection) with the kids. Not the Rollei, but not the Leica either:
 
So no one bothered to ask her if it was a self portrait?
 
Interestingly, most of the color self-portraits are with a 35mm camera. This might mean that there was another pattern involved, i.e., 120 for black and white, 35mm for color.






I printed many of the 33mm shot in Black & White of Vivian's
 
Carnie Bob said:
Interestingly, most of the color self-portraits are with a 35mm camera. This might mean that there was another pattern involved, i.e., 120 for black and white, 35mm for color.






I printed many of the 33mm shot in Black & White of Vivian's
Click to expand...

Thanks for the precision. Do you know if she used color in 120 ?
 
Carnie Bob said:
Interestingly, most of the color self-portraits are with a 35mm camera. This might mean that there was another pattern involved, i.e., 120 for black and white, 35mm for color.






I printed many of the 33mm shot in Black & White of Vivian's
Click to expand...

What is this 33mm?
 
Helios 1984 said:
I doubt she’d bring kids with her,
Click to expand...

She has photos that include the kids she was shepherding.

Vaughn said:
Perhaps someone talked her into letting them see and hold her camera and they accidentally clicked the shutter...and she loved the randomness of it all.
Click to expand...

You know, that's fine. But she has a camera around her neck. Every self-portrait of her I've seen also includes the camera that took the photo.

Here's another one labelled "self-portrait".



Yeah - that's a self-portrait, all right.
 
The Leica in the original photo could have colour film in it. There is at least one colour self-portrait taken with a Leica (although an older model than this IIIc, oddly).



Here is a colour photo shot with a Rolleiflex


but it may have had the 35mm adapter in it. (I don't know if this photo is a crop.)
 
Mick Fagan said:
I'm wondering if she was influenced by Ilse Bing and her self portraits using mirrors?
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Ilse Bing also took photos of her shadows and called them self-portraits.


Self-Portrait, Canal Saint Martin, 1933​


So, maybe Maier was influenced by Bing. But it's not impossible that she thought of taking photos of shadows and reflections on her own. My guess is she was pretty aware of contemporary photography, though, and influenced by it.
 
I was wondering if she ever strung two cameras around her neck:



Seemingly so.
 
Coming a bit late to this interesting discussion. As the photo is square format, it was presumably taken on her Rollei, which could have been placed on a shelf (or tripod), or operated by someone else. I don’t see a problem over getting the focussing distance right. The photo could not have been taken by the Leica for reasons already stated (no self-timer, no cable release, not a reflection). It would be interesting to know what was on the neighbouring negatives, but from what I’ve read her films tended to be packed with diverse subjects - she wasn’t someone who worked the scene.
 
Seeing the other shots on the roll would be great. While not impossible, it would be difficult to focus the camera on yourself like that. Focus isn't perfect, but it's close, and I think the main source of blur in her face is because she was speaking. Maybe someone asked what she was doing after the self-timer was started, and she responded?
 

Yes, that distraction idea seems very plausible. She often seems to have been creating a sales pitch of herself as a serious photographer, or at least a self-image. Do you know the date of this photo? I think the date that she bought the Leica is known, though I’d need to search the books for it. I’m thinking that maybe she set this up to image herself with the new (to her) Leica in a street setting.
 

I agree with all of your analyses. The photograph could well be a self portrait.
 
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