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Product Description
Product Description
Please note that all blank pages in the book were chosen as part of the design by the publisher.
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.
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.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I'm surprised how many one, two and three star reviews there are on US Amazon for this excellent photo book. On any level it really can't be faulted. Blank pages in a photo book are quite common though here the confusion was probably caused by having them very close to each other and repeated as such throughout the pages. Book designers would normally space a few blanks roughly evenly between all the photos. The printing by Asia Pacific is comparable to any other quality printed art book (and it costs less than quality printing in Europe or the US). The duotones use a 200 screen on a very acceptable 157gsm matt art with perfect register. The slight black/ochre feel to these photos, I thought, was a wise colour choice.
As to Vivian Maier's photos, the 106 in the book are quite stunning. In particular the framing is just prefect and I think this separates her work from other well known street photographers especially those classed as the New York School who go for a more emotional style of imagery. The photos reveal everyday street scenes in Chicago and New York and work so well because they always pull you into the composition without any distractions about what to look at first. The pacing helps here too, close-up portraits merge into medium shots and then, perhaps, a long shot saturated with detail. The more I looked through these pages the more the sequencing added to the photos.
If I have a criticism it is that there is really nothing about Vivian Maier. Her named website gives some background and I think it would have been helpful to the reader to have included some of this material
John Maloof, the book's editor, is to be congratulated on finding and preserving a treasure trove of photos by an unknown photographer who had such a remarkable eye. I'm hoping this will be the first of many books revealing Ms Maier's creative vision.
>>>LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
As to Vivian Maier's photos, the 106 in the book are quite stunning. In particular the framing is just prefect and I think this separates her work from other well known street photographers especially those classed as the New York School who go for a more emotional style of imagery. The photos reveal everyday street scenes in Chicago and New York and work so well because they always pull you into the composition without any distractions about what to look at first. The pacing helps here too, close-up portraits merge into medium shots and then, perhaps, a long shot saturated with detail. The more I looked through these pages the more the sequencing added to the photos.
If I have a criticism it is that there is really nothing about Vivian Maier. Her named website gives some background and I think it would have been helpful to the reader to have included some of this material
John Maloof, the book's editor, is to be congratulated on finding and preserving a treasure trove of photos by an unknown photographer who had such a remarkable eye. I'm hoping this will be the first of many books revealing Ms Maier's creative vision.
>>>LOOK AT SOME INSIDE PAGES by clicking 'customer images' under the cover.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
46 reviews
62 of 67 people found the following review helpful
Great photographs - cheap reproduction.
2 Dec 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I absolutely love Vivian Maier's photographs. Unfortunately the book is printed very poorly by Asia Pacific Offset in China chosen by powerHouse Book. The halftoning pattern interacts with the original grain of the print or negative to create an ugly effect. The sepia toning is overdone and nauseating. But the biggest problem has to do with the depth of blacks and shadows. I measured the deepest black in most images at a density of 1.6, which isn't really black, more like coffee with cream. What a pitty.
EDIT: increased rating in light of the discussion associated with this review and to take into account the price of the book. The quality is ok for a $26 book but is obviously not the quality found in a $100 book.
EDIT: increased rating in light of the discussion associated with this review and to take into account the price of the book. The quality is ok for a $26 book but is obviously not the quality found in a $100 book.
31 of 32 people found the following review helpful
Great book full of everyday pictures from a long time ago
26 Nov 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I was interested in this book when I read the announcement and for the price I couldn't leave it. Today it arrived and tonight I finally had the time to have a good look at the pictures.
Vivian's story is explained elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. I'll just give my impressions of the book.
All pictures appear to be taken with the Rolleiflex, giving square pictures. All pictures have the same size and similar toning, which gives a great consistency throughout the book. The pictures themselves show everyday scenes from a long time ago, from all parts of society. You'll find old people, young kids, homeless people, rich folk, men and women and many different scenes. From the pictures I gather that her style was very unobtrusive, just letting the stories unravel in front of her eyes (and lens) and firing the shutter at the right time. There are quite a few pictures where you see people looking at the camera, but many more where she seems to be a passive observer.
What I love about this book is that the images come across as totally unpretentious, void of the "artsy" side some photographers appear to want to develop. Wonderful, if there's a second book coming out, I can't wait to pre-order it.
The paper and print quality is pretty decent for the price, although some pictures had tiny dots where they shouldn't be. Probably due to the price constraint. It's printed in China, which pushes the price down too I guess. Nothing bad, again, the prints are still very nice and I have more expensive books in my collection that are worse in terms of quality. Don't let this hold you back in buying the book. Amazon has a great return policy anyway.
Vivian's story is explained elsewhere, so I won't repeat it. I'll just give my impressions of the book.
All pictures appear to be taken with the Rolleiflex, giving square pictures. All pictures have the same size and similar toning, which gives a great consistency throughout the book. The pictures themselves show everyday scenes from a long time ago, from all parts of society. You'll find old people, young kids, homeless people, rich folk, men and women and many different scenes. From the pictures I gather that her style was very unobtrusive, just letting the stories unravel in front of her eyes (and lens) and firing the shutter at the right time. There are quite a few pictures where you see people looking at the camera, but many more where she seems to be a passive observer.
What I love about this book is that the images come across as totally unpretentious, void of the "artsy" side some photographers appear to want to develop. Wonderful, if there's a second book coming out, I can't wait to pre-order it.
The paper and print quality is pretty decent for the price, although some pictures had tiny dots where they shouldn't be. Probably due to the price constraint. It's printed in China, which pushes the price down too I guess. Nothing bad, again, the prints are still very nice and I have more expensive books in my collection that are worse in terms of quality. Don't let this hold you back in buying the book. Amazon has a great return policy anyway.
43 of 48 people found the following review helpful
Expected better prints
2 Dec 2011
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've loved Vivan's work since the day I saw it in The British Photography Journal. I was excited about this book for months. I really had expected it to be amazing like what I have seen on the website. The blank pages are fine by me it is similar to Robert Frank's The Americans which also had blank pages in the 1st edition but later were taken out. They give the book room to breath. The reason why I am giving this book a review of a 3 is because the prints are very hard for me to look at. 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 amount. I do not feel that these pictures have to have this tacky nostalgia look to them. I hope that someone important reads this and prints a copy in true black and white, or by some chance im the only one who got a sepia book. I ordered a second one for my mother so I hope that It will be truely black and white.
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