Vivian Maier: The Invisible Lens of the City

Vivian Maier was a nanny with a hidden passion: street photography. Her vast archive — discovered posthumously — reveals the beauty and strangeness of mid-century urban life. With her Rolleiflex twin-lens camera, Maier roamed the streets of Chicago and New York, capturing fleeting expressions, quiet gestures, and ironic juxtapositions. She turned the everyday into art: a child’s defiant stare, the curve of a shadow, the mystery of a reflection. Maier’s work raises questions about art, anonymity, and the power of the unseen woman behind the lens. Her images are a testament to observation — the kind of watchfulness that transforms the mundane into the profound. Each frame feels like a secret shared, a glimpse into a world that is both familiar and strange, held together by Maier’s compassionate, incisive eye.