Thursday, June 3, 2010

vivian maier- the hero discovered







i found out, not long ago, that i am not a very determined person.
i have stopped listing out any "New Year Resolutions" because i know i wont do any of them.
i have painfully and quite unwillingly accepted this weakness of mine.
luckily, i didnt start this blog alone. (thank you to dear Invisibleman I- like B1 and B2 in Bananas in pyjamas- ok, sorry) because, it will be left to its own death after 6 or 7 posts.
i have always underestimated the power of determination.
when i was young, i was bored and rolled my eyes when i heard "determination is one of the key factors of success". i didnt know that, to accomplish something with the same burning passion as when the task was first started takes so much effort.

Vivian Maier, a nanny (yes, she took care of children as a job), took street photographs from the 1950s to 1990s. her photographs and negatives (all 100,000 of them) remained unknown until after her death. John Maloof, an estate agent bought a big pile of her work during an auction. That was how her work was discovered.

i cant imagine her sheer determination in going out to the streets, everyday. just enjoying what she was doing, not even giving the slightest care of what people or other peers may think of her work, and with such bravado, she did not even bother about the outcome (most of the negatives weren't developed when found), just plain pleasure.
Her photographs can be viewed here.

2 comments:

  1. Very beautiful.
    Like every photos could speak for themselves.

    Her attitude inspires me. Maybe I should find a way to enjoy myself in the dull work I am doing.

    I showed Steven Vivian's page too.
    He said that it's very beautiful and she has the determination, but it is not easy to take this photos nowadays because of the different of the decade.
    That decade people are like people from the movie, their dresses their look their acts, they are just naturally born to be dramatic.
    I hope I could go back to 70s/80s to feel them.
    Ahhh...
    That reminds me of our parents having those high waist skirts, guys with long hair and sunglasses, boot cut jeans, and the poses in their photos..
    nostalgia.

    ok, i'm going too far.
    Anyways, thanks for sharing! love the photos which bring me imaginations :)

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  2. ya.. me too, thinking about Vivian pushes me a little more.

    good point made by Steven. we really feel for photos of the past because of their attitude shown in their faces, hair styles, clothing, and background. but i wonder, people in the past looked like this everywhere. they didnt know that their look was classical and vintage. maybe when we take pictures of the "more modern days" as we are in right now, folks in the future will see them as "classical and vintage" and cherish them more than we did. ofcourse, cameras and photos back then were not like now. they were precious because not many people had cameras and even if they did, they took more personal photos than going out in the streets and shooting at random people. but nowadays, with almost every one of us having a digi cam, pictures are everywhere, plus photo sharing websites like flickr, facebook, dA, flooding our senses with pictures everyday. thats why, i think, when we look at pictures of the past, its like a breath of fresh air. i once heard a saying regarding photos, "time will make all photos better".

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