Vivian Maier, the visions of the nanny-photographer

There is no valid reason to miss this exhibition, set up in the Chiablese Halls of the Royal Museums of Turin. The first is easy: just the entrance stairway to the Savoyard museum it’s a feast for the eyes (of instagrammable perfection) not to mention the extraordinary permanent collection (there’s not just the Holy Shroud…). And then, until the end of June, there is Vivian Maierwhose photographic work returns to be exhibited in our country.

If you already know it, if you have read about its history, this is the exhibition for you: Vivian Maier. Unpublishededited by the French Anne Morin which in the world is its greatest expert, presents over 250 images, almost all never exhibited or very rareincluding a color section and ten Super 8 films shot by Maier, two audios with her voice and some objects (a camera, some hats) that belonged to her.

Among the photos never seen before, a gem: the shots that the woman took in ’59, during his trip to Italy between Rome, Turin and Genoa (when she made 3 rolls of film a day, enchanted not only by the monuments but also by the faces she crossed in the street). You will therefore see many new works, divided into various sections: the one dedicated i “Unexpected gesturesIs perhaps the most surprising. The focus is almost always on the hands: one that adjusts a heel, others that brush. Maier is good at making us live the moment, at suggesting an intention, at betraying a thought, pay attention to it.

Don’t you know Vivian Maier or does the name mean little to you? The exhibition, organized by diChroma and the Réunion of the Musèees Nationaux-Grand Palais, is ideal for immersing yourself in the “Maier-universe” and grasping all its charm.

We are talking about a woman who, born in New York to a French mother and Austrian father in the distant 1926, lived as a young girl in France and then returned to America to work as nanny (after all, his mother was too) with wealthy families in the Big Apple and Chicago. She will do it until the 1990s when she, retired, poor and alone (no husband, no children, very few friends) she finds herself having to sell her “treasure” in order to survive. The treasure accumulated over many years is made up of thousands of rolls (2500 not even developed) of photos taken on the street, all along an “invisible” life.

In fact, Vivian Maier used to spend Sundays or the day off walking around, with her Rolleiflex around her neck, immortalizing every corner of the cities she lived in: she loved the faces, especially those of people on the margins, in the suburbs, children, but also objects thrown on the ground. She adored — who knows her, perhaps in some form of retaliation? she-shooting herself and she did it in a very special way: immortalizing the shadow of her imposing body on the floor or a part of her face in the reflection of a shop window.

She has invented her own way of doing things the selfie and she was certainly a great (and self-taught) street-photographer. On show in Turin you will see how great his talent is: some tastes can also be found in the photos we publish here.

The even more fascinating aspect of the matter: when Vivian Maier’s trunks with negatives go up for auction, they end up in various hands and, in 2007, in those of the then 25-year-old John Maloof who was a real estate agent. Maloof begins to observe the photos, develops a first part of the work and soon realizes that he has discovered a pure talent. But it’s late: Vivian Maier died in 2009 in total anonymity. Only thanks to the heirs of the families where Maloof worked does he reconstruct the human story: today Maloof boasts an archive of 120,000 negatives, from which exhibitions like this one in Turin draw.

Vivian Maier, compulsive nanny-photographeris no longer an invisible, but a protagonist of the history of twentieth century photography.

Vivian Maier, Unedited, Royal Museums of Turin, until June 26th