New Street Photography, 60 Years Old
Vivian Maier, evidently one of America’s more insightful street photographers, has at last been discovered. The release of every fresh image on the Web causes a sensation among the growing legion of her admirers. (Frankly, Lens is late to the table.) Ms. Maier’s streetscapes manage simultaneously to capture a redolent sense of place and the paradoxical moments that give the city its jazz, while elevating and dignifying the people in her frames — vulnerable, noble, defeated, proud, fragile, tender and often quite funny. Harry Callahan is just one of the masters with whom Ms. Maier is already being compared.
Beginning Friday, she is to be honored with a one-woman show, “Finding Vivian Maier: Chicago Street Photographer,” at the Chicago Cultural Center in the Loop. The opening reception will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
Sadly, Ms. Maier won’t be able to attend. She died two years ago, at 83.