Law suit agains Vivian Maier estate

[Mainecoonmaniac]

http://petapixel.com/2015/05/17/int...y-hes-suing-vivian-maiers-estate/#more-165625

 

[Sirius Glass]

Thanx

 

[blansky]

Thanks for the update.

An absolutely fascinating story of an incredible photographer and the labyrinth of legal issues involved.

The good news is WE get to see the work.

Man, 160,000 images.

 

[pbromaghin]

A friend of mine knows Maloof. He pretty accurately predicted this mess a couple years ago, just out of knowing how Chicago works.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Interesting update and interesting approach to suing the estate to recoup possible costs from Cook County. I find fascinating that with the wonderful work of hers seen so far he had 270-300 rolls that were undeveloped! As he said, images never even seen by her. Then again even with what was developed by her she might not have seen even many of those at least printed. She obviously had an unusual obsessive-compulsive approach to photography.

 

[Pioneer]

Thanks for the link. The saga continues.

Vivian Maier is a fascinating artist for me. She had a seemingly unstoppable drive to record what she saw, and she did it with a unique humanity. The fact that her work has been seen at all is truly a miracle.

 

[ToddB]

I finally got to see Finding Vivian Maier flick. She sounded very bizarre. But that's an artist for you. She diffently had a red ass for men too it seems.

Todd

 

[blansky]

I finally got to see Finding Vivian Maier flick. She sounded very bizarre. But that's an artist for you. She diffently had a red ass for men too it seems.

Todd

Just saw it a couple of days ago as well. I think she got increasingly strange as she aged. May have been a lesbian or abused as a child as she seemed to have had no emotional contact with men in her adult life really.

She definitely became a hoarder.

As for the undeveloped film and unprinted negs, she probably enjoyed the process of taking picture more than their results, especially since she never developed an outlet to show or sell them.

Altogether an amazing story that continues to unfold. Especially considering the millions of dollars involved, the incredible work, and the fact that hardly anyone knew she was a photographer (although some of her later employers said she always had a camera with her) and she died broke and dumpster diving.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Gary Winogrand shot compulsively and left a 6500 of rolls undeveloped film too. I don't know if it's just me, Maier's work is sort of like is too.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Gary Winogrand shot compulsively and left a 6500 of rolls undeveloped film too. I don't know if it's just me, Maier's work is sort of like is too.

I read that too. I believe it was loads of exposed Tri-X in huge hefty garbage bags! Then again I think I read they developed most if not all of it and found very little of merit...which is sad.

 

[EdSawyer]

typical money-grubbing from goldstein, maloof and the other carpetbaggers in this sordid tale. what a bunch of frigtards. as if they added any value whatsoever. they are just leeches.

 

[blansky]

typical money-grubbing from goldstein, maloof and the other carpetbaggers in this sordid tale. what a bunch of frigtards. as if they added any value whatsoever. they are just leeches.

Interesting comment since without them you would not have know about Maier to begin with.

 

[Mainecoonmaniac]

Maier being such an eccentric and had or real next of kin, she didn't do any estate planning. Now this treasure trove is up for grabs. Most artist don't benefits from the fruits of their labor. They only get the pits. If you look at revived urban ghettos due to the creative class, the artist get pushed out once the neighborhood gentrifies. This is slowing happening in San Francisco.

 

[blansky]

Creative people are rarely the recipient of the financial rewards.

In design, in inventions, in arts, in research, ...on and on.

Their employers and/or agents are the wealthy ones.

In the California gold rush, the people who made all the money were not the prospectors but instead the general stores who sold them their necessities.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

Interesting comment since without them you would not have know about Maier to begin with.

Yup. Without them it would all likely be rotting in some landfill somewhere. Seagulls might enjoy it.

 

[Alan Klein]

I'm not a lawyer. But wouldn't suing for the effort to bring photos to the point where they can be illegally sold similar to wanted to be paid for renting and gassing up the getaway car in a bank robbery that went bad?

 

[pentaxuser]

In the California gold rush, the people who made all the money were not the prospectors but instead the general stores who sold them their necessities.

Very true. The story goes that two of the general stores involved belonged to two very folksy types called Wally and Martin who got together and in the American tradition shortened their names to one syllable respectively. Anyone know if they "made good?"

pentaxuser

 

[pbromaghin]

typical money-grubbing from goldstein, maloof and the other carpetbaggers in this sordid tale. what a bunch of frigtards. as if they added any value whatsoever. they are just leeches.

Actually, they have added ALL the value. Maloof bought the original boxes of prints and negatives (that were otherwise headed to the dump) for $400. He took a look at them and found they had no value for the project he was working on, so he put them away and didn't look at them for another year. The bloodsucking leeches in this case are all employed at taxpayer expense.

If I were an artist nearing death and learned that my work would only end up going to the government, I would burn every last bit of it.

 

[Richard S. (rich815)]

This is slowing happening in San Francisco.

Slowly?? It's out of control!

Then again living in the east bay we're getting the spillover....

 

[pbromaghin]

Deleted

 

[MattKing]

Actually, they have added ALL the value. Maloof bought the original boxes of prints and negatives (that were otherwise headed to the dump) for $400. He took a look at them and found they had no value for the project he was working on, so he put them away and didn't look at them for another year. The bloodsucking leeches in this case are all employed at taxpayer expense.

If I were an artist nearing death and learned that my work would only end up going to the government, I would burn every last bit of it.

This is both sad and funny.

What follows is based on an assumption - that the law being applied is similar to the law around here. When it comes to estates and intestacies, a lot of jurisdictions have similar principles in their laws.

The rules in an intestacy turn on a principle involving consanguinity. Essentially, closer relatives inherit if they (or sometimes their issue) survive the person who died without a Will. If there are no close relatives who survive, then more distant relatives inherit, all pursuant to a series of long used rules.

The problem is that Cook County is taking a position that is probably right in law - the long lost brother and/or his issue are the ones who are legally entitled to the benefits of the estate, if they survived Ms. Maier.

It is just that there is this incredibly inconvenient fact that no one can say with any certainty that the brother and/or his issue actually survived Ms. Maier.

So a court, tasked with the job of applying a law that is relatively straightforward (even if inconvenient in this case) can't just ignore the incomplete set of facts. It has to go with what is known.

Cook County is acting as a trustee for the interests of the rightful heir(s). As trustee, they won't get to keep the benefits for themselves.

The only time that the government gets an estate is when there are no possible heirs. That certainly isn't the case here.

 

[OzJohn]

typical money-grubbing from goldstein, maloof and the other carpetbaggers in this sordid tale. what a bunch of frigtards. as if they added any value whatsoever. they are just leeches.

Are you for real? If Maloof in particular had not got involved none of us would ever have seen these images. I've bought two of the available books and I'm comfortable with Maloof having received a small share of what I paid. OzJohn

 

[paul_c5x4]

Is valuable APUG time and space being used for peanut gallery comment on some intestate passing?

Not at all. If anything, this latest twist shows how important it is to leave a will and making sure the lifetime body of work we leave behind goes to the right people.

 

[Jim Jones]

APUG is a diverse and valuable resource. As Paul noted above, what may be one person's peanut gallery comment might significantly enrich the photographic community. We can ignore threads that don't interest us.

 

[MattKing]

Is valuable APUG time and space being used for peanut gallery comment on some intestate passing?

The Vivian Maier situation has made a lot of people think about the interconnection between the film they shoot and the ownership of the copyright attached to the photographs.