(ANSA) - ROME, FEBRUARY 08 - Shadows, mirrors that duplicate and multiply faces, images reflected in the shop windows, gestures and looks of ordinary people and the good bourgeoisie, children and people without fame, destined not to leave signs of their passage, and the recurring presence of newspapers, a theme that would turn into an obsession.
It is the world on which for decades the eye of Vivian Maier has rested, the nanny who from the 1950s cultivated a passion for photography between New York and Chicago, accumulating a heritage of one hundred and fifty thousand shots of which nothing was ever known until to 2007, two years before his death.
The boxes that contained the rolls to be developed of part of the archive, kept in a box which the photographer had stopped paying the rent, were put on sale.
auction and bought from a young real estate agent, John Maloof, who thus unveiled a unique treasure in the history of photography.
To tell the mystery and the discovery of such a particular talent are the 270 images gathered in the first major retrospective that the Royal Museums of Turin dedicate until June 26 to the artist, the silent forerunner of the golden age of street photography.
Vivian Maier embraced life with an honesty and sincerity that is reflected in her photos.
In the history of the twentieth century she is the only one among the invisible ones who managed to become an icon '', observes curator Anne Morin.
The Chiablese Sale of the museum complex reveals a fascinating journey through the research conducted by the master of the shot in parallel with the work of nanny and housekeeper carried out for 40 years.
''
Vivian Maier inedita '', which arrives after the stop at the Musèe du Luxembourg in Paris and in August will be in Seoul, adds for the first time a series of images of Turin and Genoa from 1959 in which the cities frame the interest for people.
The artist's eye has portrayed the elderly Italian couple who stand out in this section with the same intention reserved for the subjects of the streets of New York, to capture their essence.
Her self-portraits is one of the main themes of her study, made up of five thousand poses, from the repetition of the face reflected in the mirrors, to the shadows that cut or completely occupy the scene, to the eyes that never fix the objective.
'' Her interest was not in the physiological portrait or the face - explains Morin -.
AND'
as if he had sown clues to say to the society of the American dream 'you have forgotten me and canceled me but I am here, look at me in my photos'.
It remains to be clarified why after collecting so much material she never wanted to show it.
'' Photography is a territory of freedom.
He was not looking for publication.
For her, photographing was an escape from her everyday world, to make one forget her condition as a maid.
It was the only moment in which he existed and could express himself ''.
Vivian Maier was self-taught and drew her visual culture from cinema, newspapers, magazines.
Indeed, cinema was a parallel path.
From her videos of her on the `` lonely crowd '' - on display there are ten of them - she often extrapolated the frames and ideas for her photos of her.
In the urban forest the street was his hunting ground, Central Park in New York the stage where he could find actors and extras of all kinds.
In portraits, the subject is almost taken by surprise to prevent him from posing.
Maier took one, two, three photographs but then always chose the first one, considering it more authentic.
With his quick shot he could foresee the gesture and what was about to happen.
In her, born in New York with difficult family ties in France where she lived for a few years, the languages of Doisneau's humanist photography and American street photography converge.
The exhibition, produced by Ares and the Royal Museums, has the support of the luxury group Kering through the Women in motion project to enhance the talent of women in art and culture.
''
In the history written by men - observes the curator -.
the great artists tend to be erased from memory, they are quickly forgotten.
Giving visibility to Vivian Maier is a moral duty ''.
The street photography nanny died at 83 in a nursing home in 2009. A few years before her, the Gensburg brothers, whom she had looked after for 11 years, found her in poverty and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for the newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed in an obsessive way. page.
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
the great artists tend to be erased from memory, they are quickly forgotten.
Giving visibility to Vivian Maier is a moral duty ''.
The street photography nanny died at 83 in a nursing home in 2009. A few years before her, the Gensburg brothers, whom she had looked after for 11 years, found her in poverty and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed obsessively page by page. .
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
the great artists tend to be erased from memory, they are quickly forgotten.
Giving visibility to Vivian Maier is a moral duty ''.
The street photography nanny died at 83 in a nursing home in 2009. A few years before her, the Gensburg brothers, whom she had looked after for 11 years, found her in poverty and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed obsessively page by page. .
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
Giving visibility to Vivian Maier is a moral duty ''.
The street photography nanny died at 83 in a nursing home in 2009. A few years before her, the Gensburg brothers, whom she had looked after for 11 years, found her in poverty and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed obsessively page by page. .
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
Giving visibility to Vivian Maier is a moral duty ''.
The street photography nanny died at 83 in a nursing home in 2009. A few years before her, the Gensburg brothers, whom she had looked after for 11 years, found her in poverty and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed obsessively page by page. .
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
they found the Gensburg brothers she had looked after for 11 years in misery and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed obsessively page by page. .
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
they found the Gensburg brothers she had looked after for 11 years in misery and helped her find accommodation.
She had finished with photography in 1999. As she had done in the past by stacking the newspapers immortalized in dozens of rolls of film in a real accumulation disorder, she also reserved the last shots for newspapers, opened on the ground and photographed obsessively page by page. .
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
open to the ground and photographed obsessively page by page.
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).
open to the ground and photographed obsessively page by page.
The photos of the fifties documented the news, here they write the bitter ending of the story.
(HANDLE).