‘Finding Vivian Maier’ Explores a Mysterious Photographer (by Manohla Dargis)

The photographer Vivian Maier, shown here in an undated self-portrait, is the subject of the documentary “Finding Vivian Maier.” Now widely considered an exceptional photographer, her talent went largely unrecognized in her lifetime. Some of her work is on the following slides. Vivian Maier/Maloof Collection

The Nanny as Sphinx, Weaving Enigmatic Magic on the Sly

It’s no surprise that Maier is now the subject of a documentary, given the quality of her work, the nominal exoticism of her life and the secrets that still drift around her. She’s a terrific story — part Mary Poppins, part Weegee — who was at once emancipated and in service. She was introduced to the world, as it were, by John Maloof, one of this movie’s directors, who bought a box of her negatives at a Chicago auction in 2007 for about $400. The auction house, he explains, told him the work was by Maier, but he found nothing about her on Google. He had purchased the negatives for a book he was working on, but after deciding that they were of no use, he stashed the box away.

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