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Vivian Maier: Street Photographer Hardcover – November 16, 2011

by Vivian Maier (Author), John Maloof (Editor), Geoff Dyer (Contributor)
4.7 out of 5 stars 1,806 ratings
#1 Best Seller in Street Photography
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The original, instant classic which set the world afire. The first book to introduce the phenomenon that is the life story and work of Vivian Maier.

A good street photographer must be possessed of many talents: an eye for detail, light, and composition; impeccable timing; a populist or humanitarian outlook; and a tireless ability to constantly shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot and never miss a moment. It is hard enough to find these
qualities in trained photographers with the benefit of schooling and mentors and a community of fellow artists and aficionados supporting and rewarding their efforts. It is incredibly rare to find it in someone with no formal training and no network of peers.

Yet Vivian Maier is all of these things, a professional nanny, who from the 1950s until the 1990s took over 100,000 photographs worldwide-from France to New York City to Chicago and dozens of other countries-and yet showed the results to no one. The photos are amazing both for the breadth of the work and for the high quality of the humorous, moving, beautiful, and raw images of all facets of city life in America's post-war golden age.

It wasn't until local historian John Maloof purchased a box of Maier's negatives from a Chicago auction house and began collecting and championing her marvelous work just a few years ago that any of it saw the light of day. Presented here for the first time in print, Vivian Maier: Street Photographer collects the best of her incredible, unseen body of work.

Please note that all blank pages in the book were chosen as part of the design by the publisher.
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  1. Print length
    136 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    powerHouse Books
  4. Publication date
    November 16, 2011
  5. Dimensions
    10.13 x 0.8 x 11.13 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1576875776
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1576875773
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Editorial Reviews

Review

John Maloof's documentary, Finding Vivian Maier, was nominated for a 2015 Academy Award!

"Her work alternately brings to mind Lisette Model, Leon Levinstein, Harry Callahan, Garry Winogrand, Weegee, Helen Levitt and Robert Frank. But the uncracked nut at the core of her mystery is this: Why didn't Vivian Maier show anyone her pictures?"
-Wall Street Journal

"Saved from obscurity, the work of an unknown street photographer is, at last, coming out of the shadows."
-Anthony Mason, CBS News

"An unassuming Chicago baby sitter named Vivian Maier was one of the pioneers of street photography.  But for 60 years, nobody knew it."
-The New York Times Style Magazine

“An undiscovered artist whose photography is now being compared to the giants, a reclusive woman who, in death, is attracting the kind of attention and acclaim she would have shunned in life.”
-The Huffington Post

"Show-cased in the new book Vivian Maier: Street Photographer, out this month from powerHouse-rivet the viewer with the extreme vulnerability of her subjects."
-Vanity Fair

"[Maier] is a gifted visual thinking with a strong sense of self. Through [her] lens, self-shadows and window reflections are deftly composed more about context than the figure at the center"

-American Photo

"A combination of straight forward portraits, mirrored reflections and abstract self-portrayals, the collection...attempts to put a face to the name that's most recently captured the photography world's attention" -The Huffington Post

About the Author

There is still very little known about the life of Vivian Maier. What is known is that she was born in New York in 1926 and worked as a nanny for a family on Chicago's North Shore during the 50s and 60s. Seemingly without a family of her own, the children she cared for eventually acted as caregivers for Maier herself in the autumn of her life. She took hundreds of thousands of photographs in her lifetime, but never shared them with anyone. Maier lost possession of her art when her storage locker was sold off for non-payment. She passed away in 2009 at the age of 83.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ powerHouse Books
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ November 16, 2011
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 2nd prt.
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 136 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1576875776
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1576875773
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.6 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 10.13 x 0.8 x 11.13 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.7 out of 5 stars 1,806 ratings

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  2. Vivian Maier

    Vivian Maier

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    Vivian Dorothy Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009) was an American street photographer. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago's North Shore, pursuing photography during her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs during her lifetime, primarily of the people and architecture of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, although she also traveled and photographed worldwide.

    During her lifetime, Maier's photographs were unknown and unpublished, and she never printed many of her negatives. A Chicago collector, John Maloof, acquired some of Maier's photos in 2007, while two other Chicago-based collectors, Ron Slattery and Randy Prow, also found some of Maier's prints and negatives in her boxes and suitcases around the same time. Maier's photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008, by Slattery, but the work received little response. In October 2009, Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier's photographs on the image-sharing website Flickr, and the results went "viral", with thousands of people expressing interest. Critical acclaim and interest in Maier's work quickly followed, and since then, Maier's photographs have been exhibited in North America, Europe, Asia and South America while her life and work have been the subject of books and documentary films.

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Customer reviews

4.7 out of 5 stars
1,806 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers praise Maier's street photography as a great selection of significant photos, and appreciate her talent as a brilliant observer of everyday life. The book provides great insight into her work, with customers noting her shocking genius with her camera. The style receives mixed reactions, with some customers appreciating the wonderful look into early urban American life, while others mention issues with the sepia toning being overdone.

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161 customers mention "Photography"161 positive0 negative

Customers appreciate the photographs in the book, particularly the street photography, with one customer noting how they capture the essence of everyday life.

"...Black and White images, you will learn by just sitting and absorbing these amazing images. 5-stars. The book is very well printed." Read more

"...This does bring attention to the excellent composition of the images, but this detracts focus from some of the more subtle details in an individual..." Read more

"Amazing photography I just wanted a photo book of her work...." Read more

"Amazing photos, book arrived quickly and in good order." Read more

37 customers mention "Insight"37 positive0 negative

Customers find the book provides great insight into Vivian Maier's work, describing her as brilliantly observant and an amazing discovery.

"...Printing quality is good with sufficient detail - though a bit dark, and I don't think the warm tone that was chosen compliments the work...." Read more

"...many positive aspects one of the most important is Notebook’s makers documentation of history...." Read more

"Loved the layout and the quality of materials and printing. The in the information and curated photos were wonderful...." Read more

"...this title again and again and yet I still find myself delightfully discovering new details, again and again...." Read more

29 customers mention "Talent"29 positive0 negative

Customers admire Maier's talent, describing her as a shocking genius with her camera.

"...But until then, this book will give you a taste of her amazing talent." Read more

"A shocking genius with her camera and a great unknown to the photography world...." Read more

"Phenomenal photographs by an amazingly talented woman...." Read more

"...look into early urban American life, sans agenda, through the skillful and creative eyes of Vivian Maier...." Read more

23 customers mention "Style"9 positive14 negative

Customers have mixed opinions about the style of the book, with some finding the sepia toning overdone, while others appreciate its portrayal of early urban American life.

"...of people saying the book is "bad" because of blank pages and poor sepia tones...." Read more

"...time capsule, the book is an array of scenes that give us a raw glimpse into life while she was alive. I look forward to getting more books soon" Read more

"...and the print quality is pretty good even though some photos might be too contrasty or toned, but in general the photos are properly edited...." Read more

"...They are not printed in a true black and white they have this disgusting sepia tone to them it is slight enough that it bothers my eyes a terrible..." Read more

If we do not understand our past we are walking into our future partially blind.
5 out of 5 stars
If we do not understand our past we are walking into our future partially blind.
Besides my interest in Art, I got this book for research purposes for a course I am starting on The Art of Notebook Making. Of its many positive aspects one of the most important is Notebook’s makers documentation of history. One aspect of a notebook is that it is not always bound. Leonardo did not start binding his thousands of pages until late in his life and never succeeded in finishing the task. Maier, left boxes of negatives and prints. Once organized and bound, we are rewarded with an unique viewpoint of large American cities in the 50s. I personally saw many of the places of her photos. Those 20 to 30 years younger than me did not. This book is only one, yet an excellent picture of a piece of our history which provide a context which helps us understand our present and possible futures. I think that the curation, organization and print quality of this book is excellent and that merely looking through it provides a thoughtful view of one aspect of our past.
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Top reviews from the United States

  • P. Gruhn
    5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful set of images
    Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    She was an amazing unknown photographer. After watching a documentary on her life, I had to get this book to add to my library. If you are a street photographer and love the old school Black and White images, you will learn by just sitting and absorbing these amazing images. 5-stars. The book is very well printed.
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  • Larry Benjamin
    5.0 out of 5 stars The World Hiding in Plain Sight
    Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2014
    Verified Purchase
    Maier is not the first artist whose work was only discovered after their death, but she is the most recent major one. And a major artist she is - these photographs testify to a talent on par with any of the other photographic luminaries of the 20th century. It only adds to the mystique that she took these images as a hobby, wandering the streets of New York and Chicago with the children she was babysitting in tow. As the book points out, not only was no one else aware that she even took photographs, much less ones of this calibre, but apparently Maier herself was unaware of the quality of her work. But for their chance discovery, these works of art could have been lost forever.

    And what works they are - they bring to mind the eye for the offbeat and macabre seen in Diane Arbus' work, but with a crucial difference. While Arbus' best photographs have been compared to staring down the barrel of a gun, in order to achieve this power, one has the sense that she was not being entirely true to her subjects, that there is a certain betrayal - of using them for her own purposes rather than showing them for who they were. There is none of this dissimulation in Maier's work - the subjects are authentic, captured in the activities of their real lives.

    As street photography, Maier shares some of Cartier-Bresson's spontaneity and element of surprise, but with a playfulness and humor often not present in his work. Cartier-Bresson used a Leica rangefinder, which has the advantage of rapid focusing, while Maier used a Rollei twin-lens reflex. While the Rollei is slower (focus is with a groundglass), it allows the photographer to face the subject without the camera in front of their face. While many of Maier's photos are clearly candid shots, several must have required her to get to know the subject on some level, however briefly, to gain their confidence and permission. Possibly having children with her made this easier - instead of the dedicated (and necessarily self-focused) solitary street photographer, she may have come across as an unthreatening tourist, taking the photo as a minor diversion from her main activity - which is, in fact, what it was.

    Several other reviewers have taken the position that John Maloof is milking Maier's legacy for his own personal enrichment. One of Maier's distant relatives has filed a lawsuit seeking a share of Maloof's profits, the outcome of which is unknown at the time of this writing. My opinion is that Maier's work is a clear example of collaboration (one-sided though it is), and if Maloof had not taken the trouble and expense of developing, printing, and publicizing Maier's work, I have no doubt that it would be unknown to this day. I'm reminded of an episode of a television show where a man "discovered" the work of an obscure artist, managed to get the artist's work displayed in galleries, and made a great deal of money from this. The artist's descendants sued him, and during the trial it was revealed that they had used the artist's work they still owned as dropcloths or other mundane uses. The point was made that the only reason the artist was known at all was because of the man's efforts. I see the situation here as analagous - does anyone expect Maloof to do all this work for free, and for what? The enrichment of Maier's third cousin in France who probably never even spoke to her, and may not have even known that she existed? Or should he do this as a "gift to humanity" with no thought for himself? This attitude is unrealistic and in a sense ungrateful. How many other people handled Maier's photographs and thought nothing of them until Maloof stumbled across them?

    The book's preface asks what surprising, hidden talents the people Maier photographed may have possessed themselves - does Maier's own image possibly exist in the aeuvre of some other hitherto unknown street photographer? Diane Arbus said "there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them," and Maier reminds us of how much of the world around us we are missing.
    21 people found this helpful
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  • DarkroomWorks
    5.0 out of 5 stars World-class photographs, but a presentation that doesn't quite match.
    Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2011
    Verified Purchase
    The photographs in this book are immensely beautiful; uncannily unique, well-composed, subtle, thoughtful, and genuinely interesting to look at. These are pictures which I have little doubt will change how we think about, look at, and take photographs. Maier's work will become the standard which all other similar bodies of work will be judged by.

    It is odd and most unfortunate that no attempt was made to get in contact with Maier during her lifetime. Her work was discovered in 2007, and it wasn't until 2009 that she died. This left two full years to allow for even an acknowledgement to her that her work had been found. From what I've read, there is nothing indicating she had any aliments that would have inhibited her from communicating with anyone, even late in her life.

    The consequence of this lack of communication can be certainly found in this book. While the arrangement of the pictures is decent, it lacks the flow and subtlety that is present with the photographer arranging his own work - or even an artist close to him, who knows something about what the artist thought about the work. While it is known that Maier made narrative films and audio documentaries, it doesn't seem like she explicitly shared any insight about her photographs. This allows for sometimes questionable interpretations about her and her work which is distressing. For example, in the introduction by Maloof, he writes. "...the combination of Maier's intense privacy and lack of confidence in her own photographic prowess nearly resulted in her collection being consigned to oblivion." How in the world does he know that Maier lacked confidence in her work? "Street" photography - and I don't even really like calling it that - is something that requires a huge amount of confidence, both in your pictures and in your integrity as a photographer. There were likely very personal and fitful reasons why she never revealed her work which we will never be able to fathom, and it is meanwhile completely unfair to make statements or even educated assumptions about something we know absolutely nothing about.

    On the point of arrangement of the photographs: pictures with similar shapes and patterns are put together on a page. This does bring attention to the excellent composition of the images, but this detracts focus from some of the more subtle details in an individual picture. It also makes the work seem repetitive, which both her work and street photography in general is certainly not. Many photographs that dominate two pages feel lonely and distant, and would mend well together with certain other pictures in the book. On the other hand, some pictures which share pages with other images are so quirky that they deserve two pages alone. There is a section at the end of the book full of self-portraits which is well-executed.

    Printing quality is good with sufficient detail - though a bit dark, and I don't think the warm tone that was chosen compliments the work. Paper stock is glossy and of a good quality, and the construction of the book is solid. The cover is a neutral light gray cloth with the title, author, and publisher stamped on the spine and the initials "VM" stamped on the front cover. End-paper is a quirky orange. Printed in China, as are most photo books these days.

    I wish that sometime in the future Maloof will hand this wonderful collection over to a trust or company that really knows how to publish photographs, such as the MOMA, so the work gets the presentation that it deserves. I'm exceptionally glad that he was able to unify this collection (after a lot if it got sold off) - and it's obvious that he genuinely cares about this work, but these pictures should be handled by a company or trust which is more accustomed with dealing with this high level of work.

    The value of this book is great, but do keep in mind that it doesn't hold the level of quality that a "fine art" book would have, published a company such as Twin Palms or Steidl. It is a true pity that Maier could never share thoughts about her work. However, if you hold the mindset of letting the photographs truly speak for themselves, you'll be very pleased with this book.
    68 people found this helpful
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  • Rodrigo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Una belleza de libro
    Reviewed in the United States on October 22, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Realmente un agrado hojear este libro, unas imágenes que llegan, se lográ apreciar lo brillante de su fotografía.
    Envío y embalaje impecable para el envío a Chile.
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  • Steve P
    4.0 out of 5 stars Must have for street photographers
    Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2025
    Verified Purchase
    If you cut through some people's criticism based on how her work was found and monetized, you'll see she deserves to be recognised for her talent. The only thing I don't understand is why the images are so sepia, brown tinged. I have prints of some of the images with much better tonality. It would be nice to see an update second edition at some point.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Coby Naquin
    5.0 out of 5 stars It’s great! Idk why it’s in Sepia tbh
    Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Amazing photography I just wanted a photo book of her work. I’m a big fan of B&W photography so seeing a bunch of sepia images was a tad disappointing buts it nothing to make me upset about. I get it sepia is just B&W but meh. I would recommend the book!
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Rock on Lily
    5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing photos
    Reviewed in the United States on October 13, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    Amazing photos, book arrived quickly and in good order.
    One person found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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  • AmazonCustomer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Perfect.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 2, 2024
    Verified Purchase
    My friend is an avid lover of street photography and since college has loved the work of Vivian Maier. This is truly a stunning book, well presented and a perfect gift.
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  • Client Amazon
    5.0 out of 5 stars à découvrir absolument
    Reviewed in France on April 1, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    un bouquin de photos de rue méritant le détour, comme d'ailleurs l'histoire atypique de cette photographe dont l'oeuvre sera découverte après sa mort par hasard.
    Je vous conseille aussi "self portraits" qui est superbe et montre bien la singularité du personnage (car c'en est un incontestablement).

    Pour plus ample connaissance de Vivian Maier, lisez "Une femme en contre-jour" de Gaëlle Josse
    et offrez vous "A la recherche de Vivian Maier" en DVD, qui raconte la découverte d'une partie de son travail photographique, mais aussi son parcours de vie...

    A consommer sans modération, avec en prime pour les bretons deux futures expos prévues dans le Finistère en 2022 (info toute récente)
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  • Iker
    5.0 out of 5 stars good quality
    Reviewed in Australia on August 29, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Overall good quality, good photos, make me think a bit more and watch the street in a different way after reading this.
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  • Willian Cesar Gonçalves
    5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELENTE
    Reviewed in Brazil on June 28, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    A qualidade da impressão e acabamento do livro é inquestionável.
    Belas fotografias, trabalho e história incrível.

    Conhecer a história e o trabalho da Vivian Maier é algo obrigatório para qualquer um que se interesse por fotografia.
    Report
  • Photowyzard
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Quality
    Reviewed in Canada on October 19, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    I love the story. I love the images. I love the book.

    It is an excellent representation of Vivian's work. The book is excellent quality, nice quality paper and large images. I have nothing negative to say about physical quality or content.

    I am only puzzled by the blank pages. SERIOUSLY?? Blank pages in a coffee table photography book? What is that all about?? I am sure they will not do this again in future books.

    If you are a fan, buy the book. Vivian should be remembered. In my opinion, she is one of the greats. Her street photography is really something. To me, a good photograph makes your mind ask many questions. The more you wonder, the more the image is a certified gem. The book is pretty much filled with these types of images, cover to cover.

    Some of the images you have already seen online. SO? lol The detail in the book is much better. She used a large format camera and that really comes through with the printed image.

    For me, the book is a keeper. Buy it, cherish it.
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