Great article.<p>The article also mentions another artist who led a remarkable life:<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Darger</a><p>He wrote, over 60 years, a 15,145 page illustrated fantasy novel, as a janitor who had had a very, very difficult life. At first, I initially couldn't process that figure and automatically read it as 15,000 <i>words</i>, but, NO!, it's 15,145 <i>pages</i>. Unbelievable.<p>I had never before heard of either of these extraordinary artists, but my day is already better for having learned of their lives and works.
The interesting part of her work is that unlike other photographers who not only took photos but had the chance to edit them, someone else discovered a bunch of negatives she left behind. So others came in later to turn them into what you see.<p>Anyone who has shot photos (film or digital) knows how much effort goes into the editing process.<p>I love her photographs and her story, I just find it fascinating to think about this detail, especially when contextualizing her with other artists.
Thanks for this. For anyone interested there's a fantastic documentary about her called Finding Vivian Maier - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Vivian_Maier" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finding_Vivian_Maier</a>
The story of Maier is also re-told in a beautiful tome by a French artist:<p>Not knowing about who Maier was, I picked this up at a local book fair because of the way the compositions in the panels reminded me of photography. Only by talking to the author at the fair did I realize that she told the story of some of Maier's best known photographs, and that's why it looked the way.<p>Anyhow, if you speak french, I wholeheartedly recommend it:<p><a href="https://peinture-fraiche.be/en/book/vivian-maier-a-la-surface-dun-miroir-paulina-spucches/" rel="nofollow">https://peinture-fraiche.be/en/book/vivian-maier-a-la-surfac...</a>