In 2007, real estate agent, flea market seller) John Maloof bought a case of Vivienne Mayer's at a used furniture auction while looking for old photos to write a brochure for a local park. Negatives and photos. It is said that it was part of many old furniture and miscellaneous items that a civilian warehouse could sell without receiving rent. Maroff didn't find the photo he was looking for. He didn't know how to take pictures at first, and he didn't know what to do with this batch of negatives and photos. Later, when Marov had time to carefully organize the batch of negatives and photos, he gradually fell in love with photography. And consciously collect Vivienne Mayer's photo negative film at the flea market.
Ron Slattery, a friend of Maroff's brother, has been collecting old photos. Slattery also bought a batch of Vivian Mayer film at the same auction in 2007. He also posted pictures of Meyer on his old photo website. Back then no one knew who Vivian Mayer was. Slattery, who was struggling with no medical insurance, sold most of his collection of Vivian Mayer film, 1,000 rolls, to Maroff for a dollar to pay for his medical bills.
In all, Maroff collected over 100,000 negatives, over 2,000 undeveloped rolls of film, 3,000 photographs and many 8mm films. The time span is about the sixties to seventies. By 2009, Maroff had established the "Vivienne Meyer Photography Blog" after consulting fellow photographers on several forums.
Jeff Goldstein, who heard about Maroff's collection of Vivian Mayer's photos from the flea market, joined the collection. He first bought 57 photos from Slattery and learned that other buyers had bought another batch of Vivian Mayer negatives at the 2007 auction. Hard work paid off, and Goldstein eventually found the buyer and bought the negatives. Goldstein currently has a collection of 12,000 negatives, 700 photographs, 20 films and many reversals. The time span is about the 1950s to the 1970s.
And just like that, Vivienne Mayer's photography began to slowly surface. Its scale, its quality, its time span is astounding.
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