Das Leben der Vivian Maier

Today, she is one of the stars of street photography and does not shy away from comparison with legends like Helen Levitt or Diane Arbus. Yet during her lifetime, no one ever saw a single photograph of hers. For forty years, Vivian Maier worked as a nanny and almost casually took 140,000 photos: an impressive body of work that she never showed to anyone until her death. Since the sensational discovery of her images at a foreclosure auction in 2007 and the Oscar-nominated documentary "Finding Vivian Maier," her photographs have traveled the world, celebrated by critics and the public alike, and exhibited in all major galleries. Photos from the streets of France, Hong Kong, New York, and Chicago in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, displaying great empathy, humor, and an exquisite sensitivity to light, symmetry, and color, making it seem almost unbelievable that the woman behind the camera was a mysterious recluse. In her meticulously researched biography, Ann Marks approaches the story of a woman who fled parental rejection, experiences of violence, and the addiction and mental illnesses of her family, discovering her love for photography. It is a grand narrative of self-determination, courage, and unwavering creativity.