Ann Marks’s biography is a fascinating overview of the “photographer nanny” whose work has kept critics, lawyers and scholars busy since it was discovered after her death in 2009.
If a picture were still worth a thousand words, we’d know more than enough by now about Vivian Maier, the so-called photographer nanny whose vast trove of images was discovered piecemeal and not fully processed, in all senses of the word, after her death at 83 in 2009, just as the iPhone was going wide.
thanks to Chole Aftel’s blog, I discovered the work of Vivian Maier. It’s a fascinating story of a young woman who worked as a nanny in Chicago and spent her free time roaming the streets taking photographs.
Maier’s photographic legacy now is worth thousands, if not millions, of dollars, so the state and the stewards of the various Maier collections have a compelling interest to maintain and exercise their ownership of these materials. It will be interesting to see how this legal situation plays out over the coming years.
Petitioners claiming to be the legal heirs of photographer Vivian Maier are once again back in court, this time with 300 pages of genealogical evidence to support their claim, according to attorney (and former photographer) David Deal. “There’s no doubt” they are blood relations to Maier, asserts Deal, who did most of the research and helped prepare the petition, which was filed last month in an Illinois probate court in Chicago.
A federal court in Chicago has ruled that the Vivian Maier Estate can proceed with copyright infringement and other claims against defendant Jeffrey Goldstein, who allegedly sold prints, set up exhibitions and licensed Maier’s images without authorization.
“This complaint is to seek redress against [Goldstein and his company, Vivian Maier Prints Inc.] for their large-scale copyright infringement operations and deceptive acts that have misappropriate the Estate’s copyrighted works, trademark, and intellectual property,” the estate says in its filing.
The messy legal battle surrounding the life’s work of nanny and amateur street photographer Vivian Maier may finally be coming to a close in less than a
Fortunately, this long, drawn-out, complicated legal battle seems to finally be coming to a close. The Chicago Tribune is reporting that the warring parties have reached a “tentative settlement” that will be presented to a judge for approval on May 10th.
Ann Marks, who spent months researching the upbringing of the Chicago nanny who is now heralded as a master of street photography, still doesn’t have an answer. But Ms. Marks — who has no background in photography and started researching Maier only after seeing a documentary about her life — has learned a great deal about Maier’s family history
The Vivian Maier story has taken another ironic turn as Jeffrey Goldstein (who once owned the second largest collection of Vivian Maier negatives) has filed suit against the Vivian Maier Estate.
Jeffrey Goldstein, who I’ve done a couple of exhibitions of and who over a number of years built up this collection of 17,500 Vivian Maier negatives really thought that Toronto would be a safe haven for them. And I think that he was wanting also to get back to his own life which he was enjoying before he got into his Vivian Maier project
Amidst a messy legal battle over copyrights to Vivian Maier’s now famous work, a gallery in Toronto has acquired the entire collection of negatives owned
Amidst a messy legal battle over copyrights to Vivian Maier’s now famous work, a gallery in Toronto has acquired the entire collection of negatives owned by Jeffrey Goldstein.
Vivian Maier self-portrait. Photo from the Maloof Collection. It’s possible we might have seen the last of the lady in the reflection for a while. I received what was subject-lined an “important and sad message” a few mornings ago from…
“The potential legal conflict ahead is of a nature where it is better for us to fold and go into a sleep pattern until this is resolved. As the article mentions, it could be two years (or more)…thanks for the shared experience with Vivian Maier and her work.”
It’s not unreasonable to expect that almost every person reading this has seen ‘nanny photographer’ Vivian Maier’s work. Whether in galleries, online or
I finally got a chance to see Finding Vivian Maier recently. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. Going in I wasn’t sure what to expect. I have mixed feelings about Vivian Maier and the way her legacy and has been handled. And this was a debut film by an untested film-maker which had received a range of reviews. Was it just a big commercial? Would it reveal secrets? I couldn’t tell. I didn’t even know if I wanted to see it.
“Why would a nanny be taking all these pictures?” Maloof asks in “Finding Vivian Maier.” His puzzlement reflects the central anxiety of the film, and of the Maier legend in general. Why would a photographer with the fierce dedication, creative vision, and formal skill of a Robert Frank, a Diane Arbus, or a Garry Winogrand withhold her work from the world and choose instead to spend her life raising other people’s children?
John Maloof and Elizabeth Avedon, who has provided the introduction to Self Portraits, discuss Vivian, her work, and what they have gleaned about the prolific and ever evasive artist