Vivian Maier with her Robot

[CMoore]

Doc W -
I understand you 100%.
I was just pointing out .....well you know what i meant.

 

[Bob Carnie]

Sorry if I derailed this thread.... but I want to make sure I am comfortable with the company I keep, this is an international site and everything we write is open for review.

 

[Doc W]

Bob, I think you said what needed to be said. Kudos.

 

[macfred]

I like her photographs (or a lot of them) and I like her style !
--
NB23 is on 'ignore'

 

[mshchem]

One thing I find amazing is so much of her work was not printed or processed in her lifetime. She's got to be one of the best "visualization" photographers in history. Imagine making photos without feedback.

If she would have had the resources, and access to the folks that are printing her work now, one wonders how things would have turned out.

Her whole story amazes me, as does her work.

 

[mshchem]

Somehow Vivian Maier has been made fun of, has been ridiculed, has been championed(me) , a lot of things have been said about this woman, I am not sure all of it is in good taste or respectful of someone who cannot be here to defend herself.

Just an observation!!!!!!

Correct !!

 

[MattKing]

A significant number of people entrusted the welfare of their children to Ms. Maier - that tells me a lot about her qualities.
And it was many of those children who helped her in her later years - that tells me more.
And we can enjoy her photography now, which I consider to be a benefit.
NB23 has been on my ignore list for a long time.

 

[Doc W]

Matt, I can think of lots of photographers whom I would not entrust to take care of cutting my lawn but who are also good photographers/artists! I don't know much about Ms Maier, but I do love her photographs and her style.

 

[Wayne]

Somehow Vivian Maier has been made fun of, has been ridiculed, has been championed(me) , a lot of things have been said about this woman, I am not sure all of it is in good taste or respectful of someone who cannot be here to defend herself.

Just an observation!!!!!!

I've posted that many times but nobody ever agreed before. I find the post-mortem psychiatric diagnoses the most fascinating in their ignorance.

 

[Pieter12]

Sometimes you have to separate the artist from the art. Maier apparently was loved by her charges and employers. Stieglitz on the other hand was an a**hole. Both were great photographers.

 

[pentaxuser]

I thought the comment by NB23" Would you have married her if you could" was simply a whimsical and fairly amusing comment about her being a wonderful woman made by another poster whose use of "wonderful woman" does on the surface suggest a kind of admiration that in real life leads to marriage . It struck me as harmless repartee but as a nation we are renown for enjoying mother-in-law jokes that others might regard as cruel and in poor taste Example: I can always tell when it's the mother-in-law knocking at the door. It's not that I can see her, it's just that the mice start to throw themselves on the traps

I have seen a very good programme about her on BBC which seemed fairly well balanced to me and while it showed a complex person I do wonder if she was a wonderful person in the normal sense of that word.

I like her photography but you have to know a lot about someone in a personal sense to say that a person is wonderful, surely?

As for "humanitarian bs" I'd need to know a bit more about how her humanitarianism manifested itself before being able to judge whether the use of the word is bs.

pentaxuser

 

[CMoore]

As for "humanitarian bs" I'd need to know a bit more about how her humanitarianism manifested itself before being able to judge whether the use of the word is bs.

pentaxuser

You are trying way too hard.
You know damn well that comment had NOTHING to do with her.

 

[NB23]

Jeezakrice, guys, what’s with the snowflake reactions?

One guy said that se was a Wonderful woman. And then another guy asked the first guy if he would marry her if he could.

Please don’t get me wrong but I am totally confused in this modern world. Was it offending to wonderful women? To gays? To photographers? To Jeezakrice? Or Jesus?
What is the new problem?

 

[NB23]

I like her photographs (or a lot of them) and I like her style !
--
NB23 is on 'ignore'

NB23 says thanks.

 

[NB23]

Ok guys. Make a choice NOW.

It’s me or Vivian Maier. No crying, no lying.

 

[NB23]

first person on Ignore in 5 years... Fu..k You

That’s the part that I like the most: when the poor offended dude loses his good manners.

Oh yeah, and the part where he has to tell everyone how he blocked someone else.

Too good lol!

 

[NB23]

Ok guys. Make a choice NOW.

It’s me or Vivian Maier. No crying, no lying.

Of course this is a joke. Obviously I’d mary none of you guys.

 

[Eric Rose]

Seems more and more threads go off the rails these days. What can we do to stop this?

People have different reasons for posting on forums. They could range from wanting to learn, seek validation, sway peoples opinions, pontificate, entertainment and to shock/poke fun at other members.

I think NB23 falls into the last group. While he/she certainly has experience in the craft of photography a certain need to fart in the store creeps in every once in awhile. Some times I laugh other times I ignore it. I never take it seriously.

Heck I like to poke fun every once in awhile as well. Some peoples idea of humour is a little more raw than others.

While I have a number of people on ignore it is only ever due to unreasonable attacks or just plain stupidity.

 

[pentaxuser]

You are trying way too hard.
You know damn well that comment had NOTHING to do with her.

I presume that you are saying that the "humanitarianism bs"comment he made had nothing to do with her but no, I honestly do not know enough about the commentator to know. It may be that the commentator has had too little impact on me or if he has had impact I have since forgotten that impact
However I am curious about that comment. The problem being that if he explains it, can we stop the thread taking an even worse turn?
What is the case is that we have moved a long way from the thread's intention which seemed to be to invite factual answers on her camera and I plead guilty to being an accessory to that move beyond the limited scope of the OP thread .

pentaxuser

 

[Theo Sulphate]

... Technicalities aside, what a wonderful woman she was,

Would you have married her if you could?

Wow - a lot happens in these forums in 18 hours. I couldn't handle being on Twitter.

Anyway, judging from her photos of people and her style and what I've learned about her, I honestly do find her wonderful. As far as appearance and dress, she looks perfectly nice to me - however, I have learned over many long decades that even people whom I have found unattractive at first can become very attractive once I get to know them.

The question is more whether she would marry me - she might find my obsession with cameras obnoxious.

 

[removedacct1]

That’s the part that I like the most: when the poor offended dude loses his good manners.

Oh yeah, and the part where he has to tell everyone how he blocked someone else.

Too good lol!

What this tells me is that you clearly ENJOY offending people and happily embrace any opportunity to do so. I gladly add you to my ignore list as well. Feel free to chortle over that if you wish.

 

[NB23]

What this tells me is that you clearly ENJOY offending people and happily embrace any opportunity to do so. I gladly add you to my ignore list as well. Feel free to chortle over that if you wish.

Was it my Jeezakrice comment?
You know, some people get killed for mispelling alahh. Your almost being too kind on me.

 

[Besk]

I very much respect Ms. Maier's work. It is so sad that she didn't get any recognition in her lifetime.

 

[dmr]

I very much respect Ms. Maier's work. It is so sad that she didn't get any recognition in her lifetime.

I do admit that I identify somewhat with V.M. I don't consider myself to be a "loner" by any means, and I really don't have the time to street-shoot nearly as much as she did, but I have countless photos that will never be viewed or appreciated by others.

A couple of questions to ponder ...

How many other V.M.s are there out there. How many abandoned storage lockers have been auctioned where the winning bidder simply tossed out photos and negatives?

If V.M. would be alive today, in the age of the Interwebs, would she be a regular on our photo boards and would she have shared her works on Flickr or something? Tumblr? (F-Book? _GAG_)

 

[Lee Rust]

It's my impression that Vivian Maier took photos mostly for her own 'self-reflective' reasons and she had little interest in public exhibition or recognition. Like many of us here on Photrio she was inherently an observer of events rather than a participant, and she must have enjoyed using her collection of interesting cameras just as much as we might. Add to this her peculiar French/Austrian family history with the influence of photographer Jeanne Bertrand on Vivian's childhood sensibilities and it's no surprise that her personal photographic vision was distinctive. Now that the 21st century smartphone camera has encouraged our new social media culture of self-absorption and preening exhibitionism, the naturalistic countenances of Vivian's mid-20th century subjects seem so very fearless and genuine. That kind of open-faced and unprotected authenticity is rare in street shooting today, particularly since so many people now walk around with their gaze obliviously fixed upon the screens of their personal devices. It's no wonder that Maier's photographs are now so highly valued, because in most contemporary Western cultures those old streets are gone forever.