Who was Vivian Maier, the photographer honoured at the Musée du Luxembourg?<

During the boom in the American dream of post-war period, Vivian Maier dedicates his talent upside down the decor.She captures everyday life scenes, homeless photography, marginal and neighborhoods in New York and Chicago.Without trying to magnify, it shows beauty where little perceive it.The street is her playground and her inspiration, she finds her in the eyes of the strangers.Self -portraits, cinema, childhood scenes ... The work of Vivian Maier is rich and exhibited at the Luxembourg Museum at the start of the school year.Pending the opening of the doors of the photo exhibition, discover everything there is to know about a photographer whose titanic work was only recognized after his disappearance.

Who is she ?

La modeste vie de Vivian Maier commence le 1er février 1926 lorsqu’elle naît à New York. Son père, Charles Maier, est américain d’origine autrichienne. Sa mère, Marie Jaussaud, est française et obtient la carte verte par le mariage. Après le divorce de ses parents, Vivian part s’installer à Champsaur, dans les Hautes-Alpes françaises. Elle vit avec sa mère et Jeanne Bertrand, amie de la famille et photographe reconnue. C’est à ce moment-là qu’elle est initiée à la photographie qu'elle poursuivra sans jamais exposer. Elle finira son adolescence aux Etats-Unis et entamera une carrière de nounou pour des familles aisées. Elle décède le 21 avril 2009 à Chicago, entourée de la famille Gensburg pour qui elle avait travaillé pendant de nombreuses années.

Unknown until 2009

Vivian Maier did not experience fame during his lifetime. It was not until 2007 that John Maloof, a 25 -year -old real estate agent, discovered his work. In search of an image of his Chicago district to illustrate a book, he bought the goods of an unknown person, including a large amount of photographs, films and negatives, during an auction. Fascinated by the photographs he finds, John Maloof will put them online on the Flickr photo site. From there, the miracle occurs. He receives dozens of messages asking him for information about the artist and decides to address professionals who make him understand that he has a real treasure. The young man then begins a substantive work, leaving in search of all the shots taken by Vivian Maier, without ever getting his hands on the artist. It is more than 120,000 photos, films and negatives that it will be able to bring together. In 2009, he came across a death notice in the newspaper and finally found the trace of the unknown photographer. After contacting his loved ones, John Maloof will organize the first exhibition of the unknown artist at Chicago Cultural Center in 2011. An incredible craze is created around the photographer who knows a posthumous glory.

The secret of the nanny

For years, Vivian Maier will work as a governess for different families in New York, then in Chicago where she will settle definitively in 1956. Five years earlier, she had acquired an excellent camera, Rolleiflex . Now at the service of the Gensburg family, she takes care of the three boys John, Lane and Matthew. Her free time, she spends it in the street to photograph strangers or decorations that inspire her. Her bathroom in the house of peopleburg - for whom she will work for eleven years - also becomes a dark room. The artist manages to sell a few shots and frequent the environments of photographers where she can rent studios and exercise her art. When the three boys grew up, Vivian Maier is looking for another home, will continue photography without ever shooting and developing his shots. She wanders with more than 200 cards containing her countless shots and she ends up entrusting to a moisture guard. Weakened by old age, Vivian Maier withdrew from working life and experiences severe financial problems. She can count on Lane, John and Matthew Gensburg to place her in a medical retirement home. They will take care of her, that they called "Mary Poppins" and their "second mother", until her last days.

A great traveler

If photographing the scenes of everyday life and putting poetry in the most modest sets made Vivian Maier such an exceptional artist, she is also going to seek inspiration abroad.Thanks to a beautiful inheritance, it can afford to aspire more than a governing life.This jackpot allowed him to afford the Rolleiflex, a professional camera, and to plan a little world tour.In 1959, when she was still serving peopleburg, she undertook a six -month trip that took her to the four corners of the planet.The photographer leaves for Canada, Egypt, Yemen, Thailand, Italy, France for the last time.There is no doubt that with a higher salary than that of simple nanny, Vivian Maier would have continued to travel.

She has a street in her name in Paris

In 2020, the city of Paris inaugurated a Vivian Maier street.Located in the 13th arrondissement of the Capital, non-loin of the Austerlitz station, this new street is created as part of the Paris Rive Gauche development project.Still in progress, it is accompanied by rue David Bowie, rue Alain Jacquet or rue Gisèle Freund.

An artist celebrated all over the world

Only ten years after the first exhibition focused on his work, Vivian Maier met his audience many times through his photographs. From Chicago to Paris via Los Angeles, Rome, Buenos Aires, Zurich, Madrid ... We could not name all the exhibitions that celebrated Vivian Maier. In Champsaur, we remember each year the work of the artist who spent part of his childhood crisscrossing the Hautes-Alpes roads on a bicycle. For the ten years of the discovery of his work, the Vivian Maier association and the Champsaur organized on August 19 a journey entitled "The Vivian Maier Cundrilogy". The exhibition organized at the Luxembourg Museum was initially to be held from March 8 to July 4, 2021 but was postponed because of the world pandemic. The public will access 142 unpublished and analyzed archives for the first time. Hats off, cameras, prints ... objects belonging to it will also be presented. The exhibition will revolve around nine thematic pieces that will dive the visitor into the vision of Vivian Maier and his way of approaching photography.

Vivian Maier exhibition, from September 15, 2021 to January 16, 2022. Musée du Luxembourg, 19 rue Vaugirard, 75006 Paris.https://museeduluxembourg.fr/fr/agenda/evenement/vivian-maier

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