Artist Research - Vivian Maier

This photo by Vivian shows reflection, it portrays her as unfocused and quite transient. She puts herself in many of her pictures because she was quite alone, she didn't have many friends, she learnt English from theatre and plays, her theatre of life was acted out in front of her camera and she wanted to be a part of it. She didn't have any family, nor did she ever marry, she was a very singular person that probably wanted to be remembered and the only way that could happen was through her photos.

I do think her work should be considered as art, although many of them are very casual and don't seem to be staged at all. I think it is easy to look at and quite calming as not too much is going on and it seems to me to be quite relaxed and happy. Many of her black and white photographs are like this, they only have a few characters in them and the background of the photo isn't very busy.

This photograph by Vivian Maier shows a man on the street. He is very dirty, even in contrast to the wall. I like this photo because I think the subject is framed very well, none of arm is cut off on either side.