Before her death, she was a tutor, housekeeper, and nanny. He left behind 100,000 negatives, 700 rolls of unprocessed color film, and 2,000 rolls of unprocessed black and white film, totaling 150,000. For more than 40 years of photography career, but never released any works. When people who have interacted with her talk about their impressions of her, the words that are repeatedly mentioned are "secret," "mysterious," "bold," and even "eccentric." It is hard to imagine whether a person who has been given these labels by the people around her has really walked into her inner world in the endless years. Maybe, never, so she was free and alone. she is vivian Maier, a silent photographer who became a legendary photographer after his death. A person's maverick should be consistent inside and out, so Vivian's image during her lifetime seems to be engraved in the minds of those around her. What they saw of her: tall, curly hair, and a man's shirt. She used to wrap herself in a felt hat and a thick coat, paired with a pair of leather boots like military boots. As she walked down the road, her arms were high, and her steps were heavy and hastily, like a Nazi march. Some say she dresses like a 20s, others say she looks like a Soviet factory worker in the 1950s, and still others say she looks like a Western witch. This is a woman whose relics can almost fill a two-car garage. These relics are large and small boxes that she has been storing all her life. In addition to the more than 150,000 negatives in the box, there are also various memories of the times she lived in. And she is a collector of memory fragments of that era. These memory fragments have coupons, notes, flyers. There were also bus tickets, train tickets, even uncashed tax refund checks from the government, and of course her various clothes. Apart from these, she is also very keen on collecting newspapers. When her employers recalled the room she used to live in, the newspapers were almost piled up in the whole room, and there was only a very narrow road left in the room. In the eyes of those who do not understand her, she is a scavenger. As for herself, she may just desperately want to stuff her memories of this era into her little attic. That hidden, mysterious, small attic where the door would be locked as long as she wasn't there. She is indeed not a person who is willing to open up her heart too much, so people will use words such as "mysterious" and "weird" to describe her. For example, no matter which employer Vivian lives in, her door always has a lock. If she's not at home, her desk is also full of books when employers want to go in and see, so she can get out at a glance if someone touches her stuff. Another example, she was born in New York, but deliberately with some French accent. And when a close friend asks her about her profession, she will answer: I am sort of spy. What's even more puzzling is that she used different names at different times: friends called her Vivian, employers called her Viv, children called her Miss. Maiers, and the store owner called her Miss. V. Smith. She has also spelled her last name in different ways: Meyer, Maier, Mayer. Throughout her life, she was never married, had no children, and had few family members to keep in touch with. In order to maintain her freedom and independence, she finished her wandering life alone. In addition to working as a nanny, taking pictures and collecting old things, she also completed a world trip in her life. One day in 1959, she told her employer that she would travel the world and come back in eight months. In these eight months, she traveled to Bangkok, India, Thailand, Egypt, Yemen, and all countries in South America. She was 33 years old this year. In such an era, a woman, with her powerful self, completed this world trip alone. Her soul is unconstrained because she longs for freedom, so she is not trapped in the world or in female identity in her life, but has become a living person. Vivian's strong self and free soul not only support her life, but also support her photography creation to a large extent. More than 150,000 negatives, what does it mean? It means that she has been shooting every day for more than 40 years of photography. I don't know if Vivian already sees herself as an artist, but she must know that she is a lover of photography, almost to a frenzy. The younger generation of us sometimes jokes that we can play art, but it is not necessary. But Vivian, a senior, even when she was doing the hardest and most common job at that time, she always insisted on her photography creation. We are often seen as a basic need, but her photographic creations for more than 40 years have never been made public. Without adequate self-awareness and self-identification, she could not have been private for more than 40 years, and she could not have continued for more than 40 years. Many people are puzzled by her mystery, and my understanding of Vivian's mystery is that she is trying her best to maintain the independence of her artistic creation. A person who is reluctant to open up too much to the outside world, she is likely to build a spiritual world by herself. This spiritual world should be full and pure, so she was obsessed with it and didn't want to go out. Vivian's "mystery" and "weirdness" did not affect her concern for that era, the status quo of the society she was in, and the different groups in society. She collects newspapers and actually likes to read newspapers. She also sometimes goes to the supermarket with a cassette tape recorder to randomly interview strangers who are queuing to checkout, and their views on current affairs. Once a girl didn't know how to answer, she said to her seriously: Women are supposed to be opinionated. When working as a babysitter, she needs to take the children out, and she always has a square Rollover camera around her neck. She likes to go to slums, even slaughterhouses, to use cameras to record those deep and easily forgotten corners of life. Her photography works convey her perception and concern for human nature. She can capture the playfulness and tenderness of life, as well as the heaviness and sorrow of life, so she is also an excellent street photographer. Her photography works will make people feel that she has a magic power that can step into the self-space of strangers, because the characters in her works are natural and vivid. So even if she is photographing an ordinary but ordinary old man, she can still photograph the solemnity of the old man. At the same time, whether it is photography or video recording, she likes to record what happened at that moment, which is why her works have a strong sense of story. At the scene of a small car accident where the child of the employer was riding a bicycle, her first reaction was not to greet the child, but to record the different reactions of everyone in the scene and the tense atmosphere at that time. Walking on the street, I also heard someone crying here, and a click. There was a quarrel over there, and it was also a click. At the moment of capture, her world is only about photography. For a living artist like Vivian, if it weren't for the auction of her relics after her death, people wouldn't know about her outstanding works, let alone her life trajectory and her artistic pursuits. The young man who discovered so many of her life stories is the director of this documentary and the auctioneer of Vivian's relics. He must be wise enough to follow the clues to find everything that people know about Vivian today. Although Ms. Vivian is indeed a very attractive artist, her works also have a certain influence on the art world, and her story inspires people to some extent, but whether Vivian herself is willing to be known by the public, and whether she is willing to be known by her works And it was written into history, which is no longer known. It is also possible that she just wanted to simply and purely record the times she lived in and the traces of life she walked through. Therefore, between uncertainties, should we also deal with the deceased people who do not know their will and relics in a private way? And the director, the young man, began to try his best to find Vivian himself in the middle of the story of Vivian. When I was willing to disclose the evidence of my work, it was already self-relief when it was difficult to ride a tiger. Because from the beginning of the story exploration, it is the beginning of unraveling her mystery. Above tribute to Miss Maiers
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