"About Vivian Maier"

Doc W said:

I have read that a latent image on film is not permanent. For example, lots of people say that Ilford Pan F should be developed soon after exposing.

But I don't really know. It was a question. You say they do last and lots of her negatives WERE developed quite successfully so I guess that there is no problem with waiting a long time between exposure and development. Good to know.

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It varies with different films and different storage conditions.

If you are interested, use Google and/or the APUG search facilities to learn about "found films" - essentially people who come across old cameras with exposed but undeveloped film in them.

MattKing said:

It varies with different films and different storage conditions.

If you are interested, use Google and/or the APUG search facilities to learn about "found films" - essentially people who come across old cameras with exposed but undeveloped film in them.

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Matt, "google it" is not much of an answer! I am interested which is why I asked in this forum, which is partly the purpose of these forums.

But ok, I will google it.

Doc W said:

Matt, "google it" is not much of an answer! I am interested which is why I asked in this forum, which is partly the purpose of these forums.

But ok, I will google it.

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Ah, but the first part of my answer did answer your question. The second, "Google it" part was a suggestion that will lead you to a whole bunch of fascinating experiences enjoyed by a whole bunch of people.

As it turns out, I get better results when I Google "found old undeveloped film". Sorry if I mislead you at first.

pdeeh said:

I think the reference is to her as a person.

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I've seen the documentary many times and read a considerable amount about her...I remember them clearly referring to the
family as dysfunctional. When one relative died, they expressly said that no provisions be made to any family members, meaning
Vivian and her other family.

Personally, Vivian fascinates me. Not unlike many photographers in the 50's and 60's such as Robert Frank, Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander
and Garry Winogrand to name a few...they were all obsessed with creating and capturing the world around them, with massive
volumes of great images to their credit. It's a tough story to see how she ended up...but we are lucky that her work was finally
brought to the world...I think she's smiling about it.

MattKing said:

The settlement may include reference to evidence about the value of the copyrights, which would be appropriate to keep confidential.

In general, it has always seemed strange to me that the court's jurisdiction in Probate allows for public access to information about assets and liabilities that would have been confidential before a death, and will be confidential again once the assets are in the hands of the beneficiaries.

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I would think that after death and during probate, there may be claimants still in the public who have claims against the property. So it would be made public until all claims are settled. Then it becomes private property for the beneficiaries and allowed to be confidential, as it was with the person before he died. Regarding keeping the value of the copyrights confidential, a settlement had been reached probably on some percentage of value distribution. So all that had to been determined is assigning the value in actual dollar amounts. That amount is for the parties and wouldn' t be exposed since it is again private wealth. Also, knowing the current value of the pictures could effect many things including its eventual selling price to collectors. That's no one's business except the people who are parties to the settlement. Of course, I'm not a lawyer and there may be reasons totally different than my opinion.

Loved the movie. Thanks for posting this.

I just watched it on youtube. Wow. Her work/life... very interesting. I also appreciated what Joel Meyerowitz said, "some people's character prevents them from pushing that little bit you need to push to get the work seen".
Some people are terrified of being the centre of attention. I'm sure many can relate to that.
I would have loved to have sat on that park bench and gotten to know her (but my shyness would have probably prevented me). Very happy that her work is out there now, otherwise it all could have ended up in a landfill.

Matt, thanks for starting this thread. I'll read through the blog this evening.

I enjoyed the movie and do like her photos. It's nice to look back in time a little and see the cars, clothing and such. I did not find her personality to be out in left field particularly. She worked, lived her life and had a photo hobby. It seems pretty regular to me. She was a pack rat and her photos are around because of it.

I have no problem with the guy that bought all her stuff trying to market it. Vivian did what she wanted with her photos and now they belong to somebody else. That's the way it goes as they say. "you cannot take it with you". Basically if you leave some cool stuff then people want it.

Anyway I liked the show and I like her photos. Cool story all around.

Doc W said:

I have read that a latent image on film is not permanent. For example, lots of people say that Ilford Pan F should be developed soon after exposing.

But I don't really know. It was a question. You say they do last and lots of her negatives WERE developed quite successfully so I guess that there is no problem with waiting a long time between exposure and development. Good to know.

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In benign conditions (indoors away from radiation) black and white exposed film is pretty robust and can produce good quality images years after exposure. Color is more sensitive to degradation, the professional color films used to be balanced for immediate processing, a delay between exposure and processing would lead to unwanted color shift.

How are her pictures being processed. Scan and photoshop or darkroom. In the movie it looked like flatbed scanning at first but later it looked like some sort of professional affair is going on.

HiHoSilver said:

The exchange early in the movie Amadeus seemed poignant. The elder Salieri was clearly gobsmacked at Mozart's command of music. He paid Mozart some compliment, to which Mozart's character replies: when you have it crammed down your throat since age 3, its not hard.

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I haven't seen the movie on Vivian Maier, but I saw Amadeus and, as entertaining as it may be, it has nothing to do with Mozart and Salieri. They were both perfectly normal persons. Mozart is depicted as some mad clown and Salieri as a jealous maniac. Salieri was one of the founders of Vienna conservatory of Music. He wrote for Vienna, Paris, Milan and had a huge fame, greater than Mozart's.
Since 1790, when he was only 40, he withdrew from all international engagement and only retained his post as Court Composer in Vienna because he wanted to dedicate himself to teaching. He was famous as teacher of singing and vocal composition. He was the teacher of Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Hummel and Suessmayr. As you can see, this is not the kind of person who was jealus of somebody else's success! Beethoven dedicated to him his three sonatas Op. 12. He was the darling of Viennese, or European, composers.
The portrait made of him in the film Amadeus makes of him the most defamed composer in history. There should be some respect for the memory of people!
Emperor Joseph (or Josef) II certainly would have never said to Mozart, or to any composer, that there were "too many notes" in his composition, and other such imbecilities, being not an imbecile and being an amateur composer himself.

Don't take that film, (or any Hollywood film), as a reliable biography!

You could hardly call Vivian Maier a Hollywood Film.
They interview her closest "friends"...former employers...and (some of) the children of her former employers, many of who she dragged around on her photographic outings.
Considering the rather strange circumstances, I thought they did a reasonable job in telling Vivian's story, in the time frame afforded by a movie.....about a person who was (at that time) unknown to the world.

Diapositivo - Big Thank You! 'Not being close to classical enough to know the biographies, I very much appreciate correcting the Hollywood version. 'Always sad when the real history is fascinating and Hollywood fabricates anyway. I appreciate your kind help.