CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- The Chicago History Museum has a new exhibit devoted to a photographer who had a knack for capturing everyday Chicagoans.
In the 12 years since her death in 2009, Vivian Maier has gone from a relative unknown to one of the most respected street photographers of the 20th century.
According to the Sun-Times, 65 of her color photographs will go on display at the Chicago History Museum for an exhibit called "Vivian Maier: In Color."
The pictures come from 1,800 color slides taken between the 1950s and 1970s, most of which have never been seen, from art collectors Jeffrey Goldstein, John Maloof, and Ron Slattery. According to the museum, this is the first time the work in these three collections have been featured together in one exhibition. The exhibition will also include clips from film, made by Maier, and a series of sound bites and quotes featuring Maier’s voice.
“The Chicago History Museum is committed to sharing Chicago stories, and Vivian Maier’s work represents her private contributions to the documentation and representation of culture found within city life,” said Charles E. Bethea, Andrew W. Mellon Director of Collections and Curatorial Affairs. “Maier’s photography brings a glimpse of Chicago and its residents to life between the 1950s to the 1970s, allowing present day visitors the opportunity to reflect on the striking parallels it has to today’s society.”
Maier caught the photography bug in France in the late 1940s. She moved to Highland Park in 1956 to serve as a nanny. For the next 40 years, she would take 100,000 pictures, mostly of everyday people on the streets of Chicago.
Her cameras and negatives were sold at auction in 2007, and her legacy took off after historians and collectors started to look at the hundreds of thousands of pictures stored inside.
Vivian Maier: In Color, opens to the public Saturday, May 8.
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