Vivian Maier Inspired Self-Portraits
A few years ago I was at our local library and came across a book about the photographer, Vivian Maier. I went home that day and dove into her work! I was captivated by her photographs and artistic eye. I still can’t believe that she took over 150,000 exposures in her lifetime, many of which she never had the chance to develop. She created only for the act of creating, and kept her photography a secret while she was alive.
It wasn’t until 2007 that her work was discovered by John Maloof and he began championing and reconstructing her archive of photos. I often think about the fact that she never saw many of her undeveloped photos and wonder what she’d think of them now. I admire that she wasn’t motivated by how her photos looked—but by the process she went through creating each one. Composing images. Documenting her world. Seeing things through a new perspective, a new lens. Experimenting. Trying new things.
I love how Elizabeth Avedon explains it in her forward to the book “Vivian Maier Self-Portraits.” She says,
“Studying her portraits I feel an underlying intransigence. A chronic state of tension from which Vivian may have only found relief by focusing on photography — walking, observing, shooting, traveling—as though she constantly said to herself, just keep moving.”
Just like Vivian Maier, photography has given me relief—a way to channel the tension I feel between motherhood and my career, and has helped me to “just keep moving” every time I hit the shutter. Her work has inspired me to take my own self-portraits more often, and to even start a whole project around self-portraiture — “Motherhood: A Self-Portrait.” I hope to document my life and the tension I feel through a lens that is (hopefully) as interesting as Vivian’s. Her work inspires me to be more creative, to take more risks, and freely create. I’m so glad I came across her work, and feel that we truly are kindred spirits. So thanks Vivian for letting us see the world through your lens, and The Find Lab for the challenge to find inspiration from her work, because it was so much fun!
