1
00:00:52,846 --> 00:00:54,886
Paradoxical.
2
00:00:56,891 --> 00:01:00,191
- Bold.
- Yeah.
3
00:01:01,771 --> 00:01:03,441
Mysterious.
4
00:01:03,690 --> 00:01:06,860
- Eccentric.
- Eccentric.
5
00:01:07,569 --> 00:01:10,859
- Private.
- She was a very, very private woman.
6
00:01:11,114 --> 00:01:14,664
I never had any idea she took pictures.
7
00:01:14,909 --> 00:01:17,749
She would take photographs.
Many, many photographs.
8
00:01:17,996 --> 00:01:20,326
She would never have let this happen.
9
00:01:20,582 --> 00:01:24,962
(Man) Is there anything that you wish
you had done differently than...
10
00:01:25,211 --> 00:01:29,221
Sure. I wish I would have found
those negatives instead of you. (Laughs)
11
00:01:49,694 --> 00:01:51,744
(Clicking)
12
00:01:54,657 --> 00:01:56,947
(Auctioneer) Ten dollars...
Let's go harder. Ten bucks.
13
00:01:57,202 --> 00:01:59,372
Then I'll have to end in five.
So can I have...
14
00:01:59,621 --> 00:02:01,621
(Man) It was winter 2007.
15
00:02:01,873 --> 00:02:04,253
I'll have to go seven, anyone at seven?
Seven and a half. Ten.
16
00:02:04,501 --> 00:02:05,671
And ten, gotta go $10...
17
00:02:05,919 --> 00:02:08,759
(Man) The auction house
is across the street from my home.
18
00:02:09,005 --> 00:02:13,215
I found this box that was loaded
with negatives.
19
00:02:13,468 --> 00:02:15,678
$70. 75 there... $80.
20
00:02:15,929 --> 00:02:20,929
(John) I was writing a history book,
and I needed a lot of historic photos.
21
00:02:21,184 --> 00:02:24,484
And so I would, like, you know, take the
negatives and I'd look up into the light,
22
00:02:24,729 --> 00:02:26,229
and I'd look for images of Chicago.
23
00:02:26,481 --> 00:02:28,071
(Auctioneer) 150, 160...
24
00:02:28,316 --> 00:02:31,356
(John) There were several boxes
that went with the set.
25
00:02:32,403 --> 00:02:33,573
I just went for the biggest one.
26
00:02:33,822 --> 00:02:37,082
- (Gavel bangs)
- 39 is your buyer, 39 is your buyer.
27
00:02:37,325 --> 00:02:39,575
I won it for, I think it was $380.
28
00:02:40,370 --> 00:02:43,580
The auction house
told me the photographer,
29
00:02:43,873 --> 00:02:45,293
her name was Vivian Maier.
30
00:02:49,379 --> 00:02:51,669
Google searched her - nothing at all.
31
00:02:51,923 --> 00:02:53,423
I mean, absolutely nothing.
32
00:02:54,801 --> 00:02:57,181
So I just kind of gave up for a while.
33
00:02:57,428 --> 00:02:59,008
I looked at some of the stuff that night,
34
00:02:59,305 --> 00:03:01,595
and it was cool,
but nothing worked for the book,
35
00:03:01,891 --> 00:03:03,941
so I just put it in the closet.
36
00:03:04,227 --> 00:03:06,977
I just had to figure out,
what am I going to do with this stuff?
37
00:03:08,148 --> 00:03:11,188
That's what sparked me
to start scanning it.
38
00:03:15,905 --> 00:03:18,655
I have a reflex,
where we'll be driving somewhere,
39
00:03:18,950 --> 00:03:22,290
and I'll just, like, spot something
from down the road
40
00:03:22,579 --> 00:03:25,119
that I know what it is
and I know that it's valuable.
41
00:03:26,166 --> 00:03:28,916
I grew up doing the flea markets
with my brother.
42
00:03:29,210 --> 00:03:32,130
My father did it. His father did it.
43
00:03:32,964 --> 00:03:35,684
I would do storage auctions
with my brother.
44
00:03:35,967 --> 00:03:38,637
And he'd win some,
and we'd clean 'em out.
45
00:03:38,928 --> 00:03:42,218
We threw out tons of negatives.
46
00:03:42,515 --> 00:03:46,385
Cos there's no value in negatives
to most resale people.
47
00:03:48,438 --> 00:03:51,518
And these negatives that I discovered,
what I saw at first,
48
00:03:51,816 --> 00:03:53,936
I didn't know if it was really good.
49
00:03:54,235 --> 00:03:55,895
I knew that I thought it was good.
50
00:03:56,196 --> 00:03:58,776
I contacted a couple of galleries.
51
00:03:59,073 --> 00:04:01,083
I didn't know where to go.
52
00:04:02,619 --> 00:04:05,999
I made a photo blog
and I put about 200 images up.
53
00:04:44,577 --> 00:04:46,997
I put a link on Flickr.
54
00:04:52,460 --> 00:04:56,130
That post, it just went insane.
55
00:05:10,687 --> 00:05:15,317
So I went on this mission
to piece together the rest of her work.
56
00:05:17,527 --> 00:05:19,567
And then, I found the other people
who bought boxes,
57
00:05:19,862 --> 00:05:21,202
and I bought their boxes.
58
00:05:21,489 --> 00:05:25,489
And then I had all these negatives,
like, insane amounts of negatives.
59
00:05:27,328 --> 00:05:31,828
You always want to know
who is behind the work.
60
00:05:33,126 --> 00:05:35,796
I just knew her name was Vivian Maier.
61
00:05:36,838 --> 00:05:40,008
Was she a journalist?
Professional photographer?
62
00:05:41,926 --> 00:05:45,716
"Let me just Google her name again
to see if there's anything up."
63
00:05:47,807 --> 00:05:53,347
And I found an obituary that was placed
just a few days before that search.
64
00:05:54,731 --> 00:05:58,531
I found an address in her stuff.
65
00:05:59,193 --> 00:06:02,163
And after some, like,
WhitePages searches,
66
00:06:02,447 --> 00:06:04,737
I called, and I said,
67
00:06:06,200 --> 00:06:10,000
"I have the work...
the negatives of Vivian Maier."
68
00:06:10,288 --> 00:06:12,288
And he was like, "Oh, that was my nanny."
69
00:06:14,751 --> 00:06:16,171
That was his nanny.
70
00:06:19,005 --> 00:06:21,875
Why is a nanny... (Laughs)
71
00:06:22,175 --> 00:06:24,635
...taking all these photos?
72
00:06:27,138 --> 00:06:29,388
What they started to tell me about her
73
00:06:29,682 --> 00:06:31,982
was... was strange.
74
00:06:34,979 --> 00:06:36,649
He said, "She was kind of a loner.
75
00:06:36,939 --> 00:06:39,069
"She didn't have any family
that we knew of.
76
00:06:39,317 --> 00:06:42,357
"She never had any love life
or children that we knew of.
77
00:06:42,612 --> 00:06:44,162
"But she was like our mother."
78
00:06:47,325 --> 00:06:49,945
So it just caught my curiosity.
79
00:06:50,912 --> 00:06:53,372
So what I said was,
"Do you have any of her stuff?"
80
00:06:53,623 --> 00:06:58,213
And they said, "Well, I've been keeping up
the bills on her storage lockers.
81
00:06:58,461 --> 00:07:01,551
"We wanna throw all the stuff out.
She was a pack rat."
82
00:07:01,798 --> 00:07:02,798
I said, "No, no, no, don't."
83
00:07:03,049 --> 00:07:06,219
He's like, "You don't understand.
She was a pack rat.
84
00:07:07,345 --> 00:07:10,805
"We're gonna get a dumpster.
You're welcome to come and help us.
85
00:07:11,057 --> 00:07:15,227
"If you see anything that you like that
we're gonna throw out, you can have."
86
00:07:15,978 --> 00:07:19,858
I just wanted to go find out who she was.
Just a quick thing.
87
00:07:27,615 --> 00:07:30,655
I found this leather chest.
88
00:07:30,910 --> 00:07:35,290
It was, like, taped shut with just, like,
box tape or something.
89
00:07:35,540 --> 00:07:39,630
And so we cut it and we opened it.
90
00:07:39,877 --> 00:07:44,917
And it was filled to the top
with rolls of undeveloped film.
91
00:07:47,135 --> 00:07:51,255
I took one canister and I shook it,
and it rattled.
92
00:07:52,348 --> 00:07:55,018
So I opened it and there was teeth inside.
93
00:08:01,482 --> 00:08:07,112
She had stuff wedged and hidden
in everything that she had.
94
00:08:07,363 --> 00:08:11,993
Almost like... it's like a secret little
hiding spot for all of her little things.
95
00:08:12,243 --> 00:08:14,253
A coupon, a note,
96
00:08:14,495 --> 00:08:17,365
a flyer, bus passes, train cards.
97
00:08:17,623 --> 00:08:20,753
Her hats. Shoes.
98
00:08:21,002 --> 00:08:24,552
Her coats, her blouses.
99
00:08:24,797 --> 00:08:27,467
I have uncashed income tax cheques
from the government
100
00:08:27,717 --> 00:08:29,927
amounting to thousands of dollars.
101
00:08:44,066 --> 00:08:45,936
I have around 100,000 negatives.
102
00:08:46,194 --> 00:08:49,324
I have 700 rolls of undeveloped colour film.
103
00:08:49,572 --> 00:08:53,082
2,000 undeveloped rolls
of black-and-white film.
104
00:08:53,326 --> 00:08:57,706
I realised everything needs to be organised
and scanned and archived.
105
00:08:58,664 --> 00:09:01,674
But it was more than I could handle myself.
106
00:09:01,918 --> 00:09:05,758
So I thought, "Let's see
what the museums will do to help me.
107
00:09:06,005 --> 00:09:09,215
"Maybe I could get this into MoMA.
Maybe I could get this into Tate Modern."
108
00:09:10,510 --> 00:09:12,550
I sent them... letters.
109
00:09:12,803 --> 00:09:15,013
And here is the reply.
110
00:09:17,266 --> 00:09:19,596
"Dear Mr Maloof,
on behalf of the curators,
111
00:09:19,852 --> 00:09:23,152
"I would like to thank you for thinking of
the Department of Photography at MoMA.
112
00:09:23,397 --> 00:09:25,647
"Unfortunately, the museum cannot
accommodate
113
00:09:25,900 --> 00:09:27,990
"these photographs at this time."
114
00:09:28,945 --> 00:09:31,155
At that point,
115
00:09:31,405 --> 00:09:33,615
I just figured, "I'm on my own.
116
00:09:36,744 --> 00:09:38,624
"I'm gonna try to do an exhibition.
117
00:09:38,871 --> 00:09:41,291
"I'm gonna do a book."
118
00:09:41,541 --> 00:09:43,541
It's an insane amount of work.
119
00:09:44,752 --> 00:09:46,712
I'm kind of compulsive with stuff.
120
00:09:48,548 --> 00:09:51,298
I just wanted people
to see this incredible work.
121
00:09:53,970 --> 00:09:57,600
And I applied for a show
at the Cultural Center in Chicago.
122
00:10:06,732 --> 00:10:12,862
They said this was the biggest turnout
for any artist they had ever had.
123
00:10:14,198 --> 00:10:16,698
And then, the story just took off.
124
00:10:22,248 --> 00:10:24,628
The history of street photography
is being rewritten.
125
00:10:24,875 --> 00:10:26,375
- Vivian Maier.
- Vivian Maier.
126
00:10:26,627 --> 00:10:29,207
- Vivian Maier.
- (Man) Saved from obscurity.
127
00:10:29,463 --> 00:10:33,803
In death, she is getting the fame
that she never had in life.
128
00:10:34,051 --> 00:10:37,721
(Man) John Maloof is still working his way
through all Maier's negatives.
129
00:10:37,972 --> 00:10:42,022
My mission is to put Vivian
in the history books.
130
00:10:46,314 --> 00:10:48,154
(Man) My first impression,
when I saw the work,
131
00:10:48,399 --> 00:10:53,109
was the kind of delight
when a surprise comes your way
132
00:10:53,362 --> 00:10:56,412
and you feel that somebody,
hitherto undiscovered,
133
00:10:56,657 --> 00:11:00,157
suddenly makes their work available
and it looks good.
134
00:11:00,411 --> 00:11:03,621
It looks like there's an authentic eye
135
00:11:03,873 --> 00:11:06,753
and a real savvy about human nature
136
00:11:07,001 --> 00:11:09,881
and photography, and the street,
137
00:11:10,129 --> 00:11:12,669
and that kind of thing
doesn't happen that often.
138
00:11:12,923 --> 00:11:17,263
I see thousands of pictures. Day after day,
people send me their websites to look at.
139
00:11:17,511 --> 00:11:21,221
And when I flick through them,
I feel most of them are undistinguished.
140
00:11:21,807 --> 00:11:28,017
But Vivian's work instantly had those
qualities of human understanding
141
00:11:28,272 --> 00:11:29,982
and warmth and playfulness,
142
00:11:30,232 --> 00:11:33,572
that I thought, "This is a genuine shooter."
143
00:11:34,904 --> 00:11:36,994
She had a great eye.
144
00:11:38,824 --> 00:11:41,044
And she... Great sense of framing.
145
00:11:41,702 --> 00:11:45,872
- Here... this is the first one. I can't...
- It's a muddy construction worker's butt.
146
00:11:46,123 --> 00:11:48,043
Oh, my God!
147
00:11:49,627 --> 00:11:51,707
She had a sense of humour.
148
00:11:52,588 --> 00:11:54,798
And a sense of tragedy.
149
00:11:57,843 --> 00:11:59,683
Beautiful.
150
00:12:00,262 --> 00:12:02,522
Those photos of children are beautiful.
151
00:12:04,433 --> 00:12:07,693
Beautiful sense of light, environment.
152
00:12:08,396 --> 00:12:09,856
I mean, she had it all.
153
00:12:10,106 --> 00:12:12,646
Was she very prolific? Did she shoot a lot?
154
00:12:13,359 --> 00:12:16,529
In total, there's probably
about 150,000 negatives.
155
00:12:16,779 --> 00:12:18,609
She shot a lot.
156
00:12:18,864 --> 00:12:21,084
She never showed her work to anybody?
157
00:12:23,411 --> 00:12:26,331
That's what I'm trying to figure out.
So far, no.
158
00:12:26,580 --> 00:12:28,580
I think people would have loved her work.
159
00:12:29,709 --> 00:12:33,549
I mean, I could even say, Robert Frank
with a square format.
160
00:12:35,005 --> 00:12:37,045
Lisette Model...
161
00:12:38,300 --> 00:12:40,470
Helen Levitt, definitely.
162
00:12:41,637 --> 00:12:43,217
Diane Arbus.
163
00:12:43,472 --> 00:12:45,522
Some of the street portraits.
164
00:12:46,851 --> 00:12:50,061
Had she made herself known, she would
have become a famous photographer.
165
00:12:52,231 --> 00:12:53,821
Something was wrong, something...
166
00:12:54,066 --> 00:12:57,896
There's... there's a piece
of the puzzle missing.
167
00:12:58,988 --> 00:13:01,198
That's beautiful.
168
00:13:03,159 --> 00:13:06,749
(John) I really want to know,
why did Vivian make these images?
169
00:13:06,996 --> 00:13:09,826
What drove her to such compulsion,
170
00:13:10,708 --> 00:13:14,128
to an obsessive degree,
to take so many pictures?
171
00:13:14,378 --> 00:13:16,458
Why were they never shown?
172
00:13:17,798 --> 00:13:21,638
I started to unbox all of her stuff.
173
00:13:21,886 --> 00:13:23,636
I'm finding leads.
174
00:13:23,888 --> 00:13:25,968
You know, receipts that she had. But...
175
00:13:26,223 --> 00:13:30,523
Her... Her receipts
are from the '70s and '80s.
176
00:13:30,770 --> 00:13:32,560
And in the '70s and '80s in Chicago,
177
00:13:32,813 --> 00:13:34,903
there was no area code.
178
00:13:35,149 --> 00:13:40,029
And I started calling these phone numbers,
attaching every various area code.
179
00:13:40,279 --> 00:13:44,869
773, 312, 708, 847, 630, 815...
180
00:13:45,117 --> 00:13:47,697
(Woman) Was she ever a nanny
for a San Franciscan family?
181
00:13:47,953 --> 00:13:50,543
- Yes.
- Oh, my gosh.
182
00:13:50,790 --> 00:13:52,830
Yes, she lived right next door.
183
00:14:05,304 --> 00:14:07,854
I know Vivian Maier because
she was my childhood nanny.
184
00:14:08,098 --> 00:14:11,638
(Chuckles) For about four years.
Something like that.
185
00:14:14,730 --> 00:14:17,610
Her job was as a housekeeper
and a nanny.
186
00:14:19,401 --> 00:14:21,491
Vivian was my nanny.
187
00:14:22,404 --> 00:14:27,874
Vivian came into our lives when
we needed a caretaker for my mother.
188
00:14:28,786 --> 00:14:31,536
I was just staring at her, and I had thought,
189
00:14:31,831 --> 00:14:35,671
"Where did my sister find this lady
to baby-sit her kids?"
190
00:14:44,176 --> 00:14:47,556
She was obsessed with just
saving bits of memories,
191
00:14:47,847 --> 00:14:49,597
of moments in time.
192
00:14:49,890 --> 00:14:54,230
The stuff that she collected all helped me
understand her a little better.
193
00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:57,520
I have dozens of audio tapes
that Vivian made.
194
00:15:13,747 --> 00:15:17,787
I have around 150 8mm
and 16mm movies.
195
00:15:30,014 --> 00:15:32,434
I found pictures of Phil Donahue.
196
00:15:33,475 --> 00:15:36,845
Like, in his home,
petting a dog and at dinner.
197
00:15:38,188 --> 00:15:42,028
(Phil Donahue) I was a single parent
in Winnetka, Illinois, with four sons.
198
00:15:42,318 --> 00:15:44,898
Along comes Vivian.
199
00:15:45,195 --> 00:15:47,315
I met her in a diner, to interview her
200
00:15:47,615 --> 00:15:49,775
for this housekeeper job.
201
00:15:50,075 --> 00:15:52,235
She took my picture.
202
00:15:52,536 --> 00:15:54,906
I was a guy running
back and forth over my shoes.
203
00:15:55,205 --> 00:15:58,325
I had to do a programme every day,
sometimes two.
204
00:15:58,626 --> 00:16:01,046
I didn't want any trouble, I just...
205
00:16:01,337 --> 00:16:03,627
You know, I just wanted clean socks.
206
00:16:04,506 --> 00:16:06,626
She was with us less than a year.
207
00:16:06,926 --> 00:16:09,756
I have a memory of her taking a picture
208
00:16:10,054 --> 00:16:12,604
inside a garbage can.
209
00:16:15,768 --> 00:16:17,768
I thought, "Well, you know...
210
00:16:18,062 --> 00:16:20,062
"They laughed at Picasso."
211
00:16:20,356 --> 00:16:22,356
I didn't know.
I mean, I didn't give it much thought.
212
00:16:22,650 --> 00:16:24,610
I didn't think she was crazy.
213
00:16:29,156 --> 00:16:31,576
(John) Vivian took self-portraits.
214
00:16:31,867 --> 00:16:35,367
In my mind, I don't know
what image I had of this person,
215
00:16:35,663 --> 00:16:39,253
but it was definitely not the image
that I uncovered.
216
00:16:54,390 --> 00:16:57,230
She came across as unusual.
217
00:16:57,518 --> 00:17:01,058
She wore big... big coats, with felt hats.
218
00:17:01,355 --> 00:17:06,685
The kind of thing that might
have been popular in 1925.
219
00:17:09,238 --> 00:17:11,488
(Man) She was always
kind of hiding her figure.
220
00:17:11,782 --> 00:17:15,452
You know, wearing these heavy clothes.
and these boots.
221
00:17:15,744 --> 00:17:17,414
They used to call her Army Boots.
222
00:17:19,623 --> 00:17:20,793
She was very tall.
223
00:17:21,083 --> 00:17:22,423
Seven feet...
224
00:17:22,710 --> 00:17:25,050
- No! Seven feet!
- She was tall.
225
00:17:25,337 --> 00:17:28,007
- Oh, she must have been about five nine.
- Six foot.
226
00:17:30,801 --> 00:17:33,181
- She liked wearing men's shirts...
- She wore men's shirts.
227
00:17:33,470 --> 00:17:34,890
She said the tailoring was better.
228
00:17:36,265 --> 00:17:38,975
She'd have kind of a...
just a straight blunt cut.
229
00:17:39,268 --> 00:17:41,978
She had hair that stuck straight up!
230
00:17:42,813 --> 00:17:45,153
(Man) Now, looking back,
I would say she kind of dressed
231
00:17:45,441 --> 00:17:48,861
like you would expect
to find women factory workers
232
00:17:49,153 --> 00:17:51,573
in the Soviet Union in the '50s
or something.
233
00:17:53,073 --> 00:17:54,533
(Woman) That's how she walked.
234
00:17:57,870 --> 00:17:59,960
You have to swing your arms up like this,
235
00:18:00,247 --> 00:18:03,497
and you have to do a...
sort of a Nazi march.
236
00:18:03,792 --> 00:18:07,382
You'd see her on
her little motorised bicycle.
237
00:18:07,671 --> 00:18:09,131
I mean, I remember sometimes thinking
238
00:18:09,423 --> 00:18:13,183
she kind of looked like, uh...
the Wicked Witch of the West.
239
00:18:13,469 --> 00:18:15,599
Always had her camera around her neck.
240
00:18:17,014 --> 00:18:19,274
Always the camera around her neck.
241
00:18:21,643 --> 00:18:25,903
She had, like, this great camera with...
I remember, it was a square.
242
00:18:26,148 --> 00:18:31,568
Rolleiflex. You flip open the thing and you
look through the viewfinder directly down.
243
00:18:31,820 --> 00:18:34,160
I lusted after a twin-lens Rolly.
244
00:18:34,406 --> 00:18:35,866
And here, she had one.
245
00:18:36,116 --> 00:18:41,246
And I looked at that camera, and it looked
like it was rather old.
246
00:18:43,999 --> 00:18:49,209
You see, the Rolleiflex
is a great disguise camera.
247
00:18:50,631 --> 00:18:55,051
Because it wasn't up here, where she had
to alert somebody on the street
248
00:18:55,302 --> 00:18:56,602
that she was photographing them.
249
00:18:56,845 --> 00:18:58,805
She could be sort of secretive down here.
250
00:19:00,891 --> 00:19:03,391
The camera was shooting from below.
251
00:19:03,644 --> 00:19:07,864
And it gave her pictures
a kind of towering magnitude.
252
00:19:09,483 --> 00:19:12,953
There's a picture of a guy.
He's just an ordinary street guy.
253
00:19:13,195 --> 00:19:16,775
But he has a power and dignity.
254
00:19:17,032 --> 00:19:21,122
And he's... he's standing there
and he's looking at her.
255
00:19:21,370 --> 00:19:24,870
If you look at his eyeline,
he's looking right into her face.
256
00:19:25,124 --> 00:19:30,134
And she probably looked down and focused
and then looked right up at him.
257
00:19:31,213 --> 00:19:33,883
And he looked at her
and she fired the shutter.
258
00:19:35,217 --> 00:19:38,967
Street photographers
tend to be gregarious
259
00:19:39,221 --> 00:19:41,221
in the sense that they can
go out on the street,
260
00:19:41,473 --> 00:19:44,693
and they're comfortable
being among people,
261
00:19:44,935 --> 00:19:50,975
but they're also a funny mixture of solitaries
at the same time as being gregarious.
262
00:19:51,233 --> 00:19:53,533
You observe and you embrace
and you take in,
263
00:19:53,777 --> 00:19:57,027
but you stay back
and you try to stay invisible.
264
00:19:59,199 --> 00:20:01,329
(Woman) She didn't like
to talk about herself.
265
00:20:01,577 --> 00:20:04,447
Some people I meet and they're very open.
266
00:20:04,705 --> 00:20:08,035
She was not an open person,
she was a closed person.
267
00:20:08,876 --> 00:20:11,336
She lived on the third floor in our attic,
268
00:20:11,587 --> 00:20:15,917
and one of the first things she asked me
for was please to put in a lock,
269
00:20:16,175 --> 00:20:19,175
so that she could lock her area securely.
270
00:20:20,637 --> 00:20:22,677
It was a real serious lock.
271
00:20:23,557 --> 00:20:26,057
She was mysterious.
272
00:20:26,894 --> 00:20:31,194
She said don't ever open this door,
to her room.
273
00:20:33,942 --> 00:20:36,702
I think she made friends with me
because she sized me up,
274
00:20:36,945 --> 00:20:40,315
and thought I was strong enough
to lift a bunch of boxes for her.
275
00:20:40,574 --> 00:20:42,624
I broke the springs of my car.
276
00:20:43,660 --> 00:20:46,830
I think that gives you an idea
of how much weight I lifted.
277
00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:51,000
She mentioned that
she brought her life with her,
278
00:20:51,251 --> 00:20:53,711
which meant a number of boxes.
279
00:20:53,962 --> 00:20:56,592
We said, "Sure, no problem."
We had a garage.
280
00:20:56,840 --> 00:21:01,470
There was a porch off of the room,
you know, sort of those sleeping porches.
281
00:21:01,720 --> 00:21:04,680
And it was piled high with boxes.
282
00:21:05,307 --> 00:21:08,937
We put them in our garage, erm,
which, fortunately,
283
00:21:11,271 --> 00:21:12,521
was a two-and-a-half car garage,
for two cars.
284
00:21:13,065 --> 00:21:15,475
- And so we had this..
- It became a two-car garage.
285
00:21:15,734 --> 00:21:18,404
It became...
it became a tight two-car garage.
286
00:21:18,654 --> 00:21:22,204
Of course, we'll never know how much
the boxes were her photographs,
287
00:21:22,449 --> 00:21:24,369
- and how much of the boxes were...
- John knows.
288
00:21:24,618 --> 00:21:27,908
Well, but she had so many boxes.
289
00:21:29,748 --> 00:21:34,038
I'd like to know why you would hoard
all of this great art.
290
00:21:34,294 --> 00:21:36,424
Why would... why wouldn't you share it?
291
00:21:37,339 --> 00:21:39,929
What's the point of taking it
if no one sees it?
292
00:21:40,842 --> 00:21:42,592
So sad, really.
293
00:21:42,844 --> 00:21:44,604
Really sad.
294
00:21:44,846 --> 00:21:46,766
If you could have just shown her
all the pictures
295
00:21:47,015 --> 00:21:49,425
and held her down in a chair
somewhere so she couldn't...
296
00:21:49,685 --> 00:21:52,095
put tape on her mouth
so she couldn't tell you no.
297
00:21:52,896 --> 00:21:56,726
Obviously, the woman was so creative,
and it must have been galling...
298
00:21:57,609 --> 00:22:00,149
to just, you know, be a maid.
299
00:22:01,196 --> 00:22:03,986
Wash the floors,
making some lunch and dinner,
300
00:22:04,950 --> 00:22:06,990
taking care of kids as a nanny.
301
00:22:13,041 --> 00:22:16,041
(John) Some of the early photos
I have are from 1951.
302
00:22:18,630 --> 00:22:23,590
One of them said on the back,
"The Walkers, Southampton."
303
00:22:25,262 --> 00:22:29,602
(Woman) I was surprised to see the
photographs of my grandparents' house.
304
00:22:31,184 --> 00:22:33,194
We always called it Tides' End.
305
00:22:40,569 --> 00:22:44,239
It's amazing to see it, uh... so dilapidated.
306
00:22:47,326 --> 00:22:48,576
This was flowers.
307
00:22:48,827 --> 00:22:51,707
We'd have lunches out here,
and tea, and...
308
00:22:52,748 --> 00:22:54,788
It was wonderful.
309
00:22:55,042 --> 00:22:57,792
Vivian probably spent the summer.
310
00:22:58,045 --> 00:23:00,545
She was probably a nanny
out of New York,
311
00:23:01,298 --> 00:23:04,128
tagging along with a family
and with the children.
312
00:23:04,384 --> 00:23:07,184
In those days,
your father worked in New York,
313
00:23:07,429 --> 00:23:09,389
and came out by train on Friday,
314
00:23:09,639 --> 00:23:11,519
and went back on Sunday.
315
00:23:11,767 --> 00:23:14,597
I don't think that's changed very much.
316
00:23:14,853 --> 00:23:17,063
If you go to the beach club today,
317
00:23:17,314 --> 00:23:19,784
and, uh, go down on the sand,
318
00:23:20,025 --> 00:23:22,105
you'll see the nannies there.
319
00:23:23,070 --> 00:23:25,030
Some of these women
have been lucky enough
320
00:23:25,280 --> 00:23:27,490
to make their way
up here to the United States.
321
00:23:27,741 --> 00:23:31,581
The girl who helps me,
this is her fifth or sixth year here.
322
00:23:32,496 --> 00:23:34,916
- (John) What's her name?
- Olivia.
323
00:23:37,042 --> 00:23:39,672
Delightful. Delightful person.
I love her dearly.
324
00:23:41,797 --> 00:23:44,967
She speaks very little English,
and I speak very little Spanish.
325
00:23:45,217 --> 00:23:47,387
We get along beautifully.
326
00:23:56,436 --> 00:23:59,306
It's been written about
that she had few friends,
327
00:23:59,564 --> 00:24:03,324
and I consider myself one of those friends.
328
00:24:04,653 --> 00:24:07,703
I liked her a lot.
She was a terrific person.
329
00:24:09,699 --> 00:24:11,739
1962.
330
00:24:12,786 --> 00:24:16,536
I lived in Highland Park, I had a lot
of small children, I was home a lot.
331
00:24:16,790 --> 00:24:21,090
One of my children was friendly
with one of the boys she took care of.
332
00:24:21,336 --> 00:24:24,456
The children, they were always
at each other's houses,
333
00:24:24,714 --> 00:24:26,014
and she would come by.
334
00:24:26,258 --> 00:24:30,758
We had good conversations with kids
swirling around us ail the time.
335
00:24:31,012 --> 00:24:33,812
I had a very freewheeling, open household.
336
00:24:36,351 --> 00:24:38,521
There weren't a lot of rules.
337
00:24:39,062 --> 00:24:40,732
You know? Don't get killed in the street.
338
00:24:41,773 --> 00:24:43,903
She loved the children
and the children loved her.
339
00:24:44,151 --> 00:24:46,281
She was wonderful to the children.
340
00:24:49,865 --> 00:24:54,235
I think, probably loved them as much
as she probably loved anybody.
341
00:24:55,829 --> 00:24:57,789
- Knock, knock!
- (Child) Who's there?
342
00:24:58,039 --> 00:24:59,039
- Apple
- Apple who?
343
00:24:59,291 --> 00:25:01,841
- Apple knock knock! (Giggling)
- Who's there?
344
00:25:03,044 --> 00:25:05,264
- Apple.
- Knock, knock!
345
00:25:06,047 --> 00:25:07,507
- Who's there?
- Knock, knock.
346
00:25:07,757 --> 00:25:10,087
Knock, knock who? (Giggling)
347
00:25:13,847 --> 00:25:15,637
(Vivian, laughing) Oh, God!
348
00:25:15,891 --> 00:25:17,641
Well, gentlemen...
349
00:25:17,893 --> 00:25:21,983
I think she was quite lively, and a wonderful
person in her younger years.
350
00:25:23,064 --> 00:25:24,524
I mean, she must have been a delight.
351
00:25:24,774 --> 00:25:27,654
I can see how they worshipped her,
352
00:25:27,903 --> 00:25:30,663
because she was doing the adventures
353
00:25:30,906 --> 00:25:34,276
that, normally, a parent
would probably not do.
354
00:25:35,952 --> 00:25:38,622
Life was more adventurous
with her around.
355
00:25:39,623 --> 00:25:43,083
(Woman) She was very opinionated about
how children should spend their time,
356
00:25:43,335 --> 00:25:46,335
and mainly how they should spend it
was out and about with her.
357
00:25:46,588 --> 00:25:50,928
She would load up the stroller with
the baby and her bag, and both kids,
358
00:25:51,176 --> 00:25:53,296
and off they would go on outings.
359
00:25:53,553 --> 00:25:55,063
And they had their routine.
360
00:25:55,305 --> 00:25:57,885
There was a Marshall Field's
in downtown Evanston,
361
00:25:58,141 --> 00:26:00,141
and it had a candy counter
on the first floor.
362
00:26:00,393 --> 00:26:03,693
Well, that was always the first stop,
because there were always free samples.
363
00:26:04,856 --> 00:26:08,566
(Woman) She would avail herself
very heartily of the free samples.
364
00:26:09,361 --> 00:26:11,031
Meaning, like, dump...
365
00:26:11,321 --> 00:26:14,031
You know, she'd dump
the whole tray of Frango Mints
366
00:26:14,324 --> 00:26:16,334
into her purse and walk away!
367
00:26:17,661 --> 00:26:19,201
We stopped going there all of a sudden,
368
00:26:19,496 --> 00:26:23,706
but I believe that she was kicked
out of Marshall Field's, permanently.
369
00:26:24,501 --> 00:26:26,671
(Man) A really clear memory
is her setting up
370
00:26:26,962 --> 00:26:29,672
to take photos
of all these naked mannequins.
371
00:26:30,298 --> 00:26:34,048
Some of them were headless,
some of them were toppled over a little bit.
372
00:26:34,344 --> 00:26:36,184
There'll be probably
an amazing photograph.
373
00:26:36,471 --> 00:26:38,141
But as a child, it was taking forever,
374
00:26:38,431 --> 00:26:40,311
standing there
on the corner of the street,
375
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:44,560
waiting while this weird lady takes pictures
of these naked, headless mannequins.
376
00:26:44,854 --> 00:26:48,284
Then they would go out
and they would look in the alleys for junk,
377
00:26:48,567 --> 00:26:50,317
because that was what she liked to do.
378
00:26:50,610 --> 00:26:53,700
She would come home
with pieces of metal, old furniture,
379
00:26:53,989 --> 00:26:55,529
and we would look at it.
380
00:26:55,824 --> 00:26:59,334
"Is this art? Is this not art? What is this?
Oh, this could be useful.
381
00:26:59,619 --> 00:27:01,539
"This could come in handy sometime."
382
00:27:03,331 --> 00:27:06,841
(Duffy Levant) My brother Robbie,
he was riding his bike home from school,
383
00:27:07,127 --> 00:27:08,087
and he got hit by a car.
384
00:27:08,378 --> 00:27:12,048
He was sort of laying in the middle of
the street, and an ambulance was coming,
385
00:27:12,340 --> 00:27:14,880
and he... and he says,
and I don't know if this is true,
386
00:27:15,176 --> 00:27:19,006
but he always said that Vivian was taking
pictures of him laying on the ground.
387
00:27:21,766 --> 00:27:23,436
It wasn't, like, "Oh, Robbie, are you OK?"
388
00:27:23,727 --> 00:27:25,767
It was more just,
"Oh, this is a good photo op!"
389
00:27:32,986 --> 00:27:37,066
My mother drove up and saw my brother
lying in the street.
390
00:27:38,658 --> 00:27:41,328
She said, "Oh! I thought the dogs got hit."
391
00:27:43,371 --> 00:27:45,371
Vivian was just kind of above the fray.
392
00:27:45,665 --> 00:27:50,045
And I remember thinking,
"There's Vivian, taking pictures, as usual."
393
00:27:53,632 --> 00:27:58,302
She was aware of what was going on
in politics and society at the time.
394
00:28:01,056 --> 00:28:05,016
She would bring this cassette recorder...
395
00:28:05,310 --> 00:28:09,560
and she goes to the supermarket,
and she's asking people in line...
396
00:28:10,899 --> 00:28:11,939
- (Vivian) Hi, Carl.
- Hi.
397
00:28:12,233 --> 00:28:13,493
(Vivian) I got you with my machine.
398
00:28:13,777 --> 00:28:17,907
I was wondering if you had anything
to say about all this political scene.
399
00:28:18,198 --> 00:28:20,028
(Carl) Well...
(Vivian) About Nixon and so on.
400
00:28:20,325 --> 00:28:23,285
(Carl) I think it happened the way it should
for the best of the country.
401
00:28:23,578 --> 00:28:26,078
(Vivian) And maybe it'll be a warning for
future politicians.
402
00:28:26,373 --> 00:28:28,833
(Carl) That's right. That's right.
403
00:28:29,626 --> 00:28:31,586
(Vivian) But what did you think
of the impeachment?
404
00:28:31,878 --> 00:28:33,168
- Come on!
- (Woman) Am I on tape?
405
00:28:33,463 --> 00:28:36,013
(Vivian) Yes, you are. Come on.
(Woman) I don't know.
406
00:28:36,299 --> 00:28:38,049
(Vivian) Well, you should have an opinion.
407
00:28:38,343 --> 00:28:40,053
Women are supposed
to be opinionated, I hope.
408
00:28:40,345 --> 00:28:42,175
- (Woman laughs)
- (Vivian) Come on.
409
00:28:43,098 --> 00:28:47,138
There's one movie
that she made that has a note in it.
410
00:28:48,895 --> 00:28:53,265
And it says, "1972,
Chicago murder of mother and baby.
411
00:28:53,566 --> 00:28:56,566
"Market where she found
ad for baby-sitting job
412
00:28:56,861 --> 00:28:59,281
"which had led
to disappearance and death.
413
00:29:09,124 --> 00:29:11,674
Then you see her walking
to the supermarket.
414
00:29:14,212 --> 00:29:17,222
She's walking
in the baby-sitter's footsteps.
415
00:29:21,636 --> 00:29:23,926
You see her walking
to the neighbourhood.
416
00:29:24,764 --> 00:29:28,524
I just wonder if that's where
the crime happened.
417
00:29:34,941 --> 00:29:36,991
She goes to the funeral home.
418
00:29:50,206 --> 00:29:53,956
She's kind of...
a journalist of the era, like a...
419
00:29:54,210 --> 00:29:57,260
But... usually, you do that to show people.
420
00:29:57,505 --> 00:29:59,295
You know, to show,
"This is what happened."
421
00:29:59,549 --> 00:30:00,629
She just did it.
422
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:11,980
(Man) One day in 1977,
I was driving on Sheridan Road
423
00:30:13,646 --> 00:30:16,066
and someone flagged me for hitchhiking.
424
00:30:16,316 --> 00:30:18,146
Plenty of people do that.
425
00:30:18,401 --> 00:30:20,451
Turned out to be Vivian Maier.
426
00:30:21,404 --> 00:30:24,994
(Barry Wallis) When I met Vivian,
back in 1972,
427
00:30:25,241 --> 00:30:27,491
I was in grad school at Northwestern,
428
00:30:27,744 --> 00:30:29,664
and I worked in the language lab.
429
00:30:29,913 --> 00:30:34,633
And it was not at all unusual for eccentric
people to be coming through the lab.
430
00:30:35,794 --> 00:30:40,174
She was French. Uh, she had
lost most of her accent, I would say.
431
00:30:40,423 --> 00:30:46,353
She affected what, at the time, struck me
instantly as a fake French accent.
432
00:30:46,596 --> 00:30:49,016
Some people have said
that she had a fake accent.
433
00:30:49,265 --> 00:30:50,845
No, this is... this is not true.
434
00:30:51,100 --> 00:30:54,440
My degree is in linguistics.
I have a PhD in linguistics.
435
00:30:56,689 --> 00:30:59,479
The truth is, it was a fake accent.
436
00:31:01,653 --> 00:31:06,493
(Vivian) Uh, I happened to see the film
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse,
437
00:31:06,741 --> 00:31:09,331
and, probably not for nothing,
they were right...
438
00:31:09,577 --> 00:31:11,037
And I have...
439
00:31:11,287 --> 00:31:14,287
There's the lilting sound of it, you know?
440
00:31:14,791 --> 00:31:18,131
(Lilting) "Uh, I don't really know what you
want me to do, but you have to do it,
441
00:31:18,378 --> 00:31:20,838
"come over later,
and then everything will be OK."
442
00:31:21,089 --> 00:31:23,509
Her voice, it seemed like it went
up and down,
443
00:31:23,758 --> 00:31:26,048
- you know what I'm saying?
- Oh, yes. Ooooh!
444
00:31:26,302 --> 00:31:29,932
Her vowels were longer in duration
than French vowels.
445
00:31:30,181 --> 00:31:31,981
I mean, you know, this is the...
446
00:31:32,225 --> 00:31:37,225
I did... My master's, uh, thesis
was on vowel duration in French.
447
00:31:37,480 --> 00:31:38,940
So I had a little bit of background.
448
00:31:40,775 --> 00:31:43,355
I believe it's someone
who had polished their English accent,
449
00:31:43,611 --> 00:31:46,201
having then lost some
of their French accent.
450
00:31:46,447 --> 00:31:49,697
You don't want to see
a copy of my dissertation, so...
451
00:31:49,951 --> 00:31:51,161
(Chuckles)
452
00:31:51,411 --> 00:31:54,081
- (John) Well...
- No! You don't, really.
453
00:31:56,875 --> 00:31:58,745
I asked her her name.
454
00:31:59,002 --> 00:32:01,172
She kind of paused. I remember that.
455
00:32:01,421 --> 00:32:03,381
And she said, "Call me Smith."
456
00:32:04,716 --> 00:32:07,296
I mean, it was very clear
she didn't want to tell me her name.
457
00:32:08,553 --> 00:32:10,393
I thought, "This is weird."
458
00:32:14,309 --> 00:32:16,849
(Woman) She had been
a customer of ours.
459
00:32:17,103 --> 00:32:19,443
She was a pain in the neck, to be truthful.
460
00:32:20,273 --> 00:32:23,693
We held things for her
for as long as a year.
461
00:32:23,943 --> 00:32:26,613
We would say, "What's your name?"
462
00:32:26,863 --> 00:32:28,623
"I'm not going to tell you."
463
00:32:30,033 --> 00:32:32,703
"Well, we can't keep it without a name."
464
00:32:33,703 --> 00:32:37,003
"All right. Miss V Smith."
465
00:32:40,501 --> 00:32:42,591
You know, "Ha-ha-ha, Miss V Smith."
466
00:32:42,837 --> 00:32:46,587
It was patently obvious
that she was not Miss V Smith.
467
00:32:46,841 --> 00:32:48,971
And we'd say, "OK, phone number."
468
00:32:49,218 --> 00:32:50,888
"I don't have a phone."
469
00:32:51,137 --> 00:32:53,927
"Well, how are we going to get in touch
with you if we need to?"
470
00:32:54,182 --> 00:32:55,312
"Well, you won't."
471
00:32:59,312 --> 00:33:02,022
Why was she giving us a fake name?
472
00:33:04,734 --> 00:33:06,784
We didn't think as much about it...
473
00:33:07,987 --> 00:33:09,857
as you are.
474
00:33:14,452 --> 00:33:16,372
(John) Now, she spelled her name
differently.
475
00:33:16,621 --> 00:33:19,541
There's B as in boy Maier.
476
00:33:20,208 --> 00:33:23,168
Every possible combination of ways
you could spell Maier.
477
00:33:23,419 --> 00:33:27,629
M-E-Y-E-R. M-A-I-E-R. M-A-Y-E-R.
478
00:33:27,882 --> 00:33:29,882
We always called her Miss Maier.
479
00:33:30,134 --> 00:33:31,934
Miss Maiers.
480
00:33:32,178 --> 00:33:34,308
She said, "Call me Viv."
481
00:33:34,555 --> 00:33:37,175
You would never
have called this woman Viv.
482
00:33:37,976 --> 00:33:40,476
- Vivian.
- Nobody called her Viv?
483
00:33:40,728 --> 00:33:42,648
No. Vivian.
484
00:33:44,232 --> 00:33:47,112
(Barry Wallis) Why wouldn't you wanna
tell people your real name?
485
00:33:48,403 --> 00:33:53,163
I asked her what she did, and her answer
was another thing I'll never forget.
486
00:33:53,408 --> 00:33:55,198
"I'm sort of a spy."
487
00:33:55,451 --> 00:33:58,291
That's exactly what she said.
I can still see her and hear her saying it.
488
00:33:58,538 --> 00:33:59,658
It was so odd.
489
00:34:01,207 --> 00:34:06,747
I think the only person who says that is
somebody who's definitely not a spy.
490
00:34:07,005 --> 00:34:09,085
Why would you say that?
491
00:34:17,557 --> 00:34:19,057
(Child laughs)
492
00:34:22,937 --> 00:34:25,147
Maybe she wanted to be somebody else.
493
00:34:26,190 --> 00:34:28,230
A lot of us do that.
494
00:34:32,655 --> 00:34:36,735
(Zalman Usiskin) If she did not have
this job as a baby-sitter,
495
00:34:36,993 --> 00:34:40,833
her lifestyle would have been
very understandable.
496
00:34:42,832 --> 00:34:46,292
The real question is,
why did she do this kind of work?
497
00:34:48,629 --> 00:34:52,719
(Lauren Usiskin) Her intelligence
and her views on things,
498
00:34:52,967 --> 00:34:57,137
there was something very precious to her
about keeping them secret.
499
00:34:57,388 --> 00:35:03,188
Vivian may have looked down,
so to speak, on the employers
500
00:35:03,436 --> 00:35:07,186
who were hiring her
for this low-paying kind of work.
501
00:35:09,484 --> 00:35:12,244
She identified with the poor.
502
00:35:19,410 --> 00:35:21,160
I mean, she said she doesn't
go to a doctor,
503
00:35:21,412 --> 00:35:23,002
she doesn't have
any medical insurance,
504
00:35:23,247 --> 00:35:25,417
and I said, "Are you...
are you worried about that?"
505
00:35:25,666 --> 00:35:28,956
And she said,
"The poor are too poor to die."
506
00:35:31,339 --> 00:35:34,759
She told me that
when she first came to New York,
507
00:35:35,009 --> 00:35:38,599
she went to work in a sewing sweatshop.
508
00:35:38,846 --> 00:35:41,596
She realised one day
that she wanted to do something
509
00:35:41,849 --> 00:35:45,269
where she could be outside
and in the world, out and about,
510
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:48,150
and see the sun,
so she took up nannying.
511
00:35:50,149 --> 00:35:54,199
She felt that it gave her
a certain amount of freedom.
512
00:35:55,863 --> 00:35:58,453
Somebody else was providing
the shelter for her.
513
00:35:58,699 --> 00:36:03,329
She wasn't having to work so hard
just to make ends meet,
514
00:36:03,579 --> 00:36:07,789
so she had some free time for her
photographic endeavours.
515
00:36:16,175 --> 00:36:17,585
(John) 1959.
516
00:36:17,844 --> 00:36:23,274
Vivian told her employer,
"I'm going to travel the world."
517
00:36:23,516 --> 00:36:25,056
"I'll be back in eight months."
518
00:36:26,853 --> 00:36:30,443
She went to Bangkok, India, Thailand...
519
00:36:30,690 --> 00:36:32,730
Yemen ...
520
00:36:33,818 --> 00:36:36,068
All of South America.
521
00:36:36,320 --> 00:36:38,700
She travelled by herself.
522
00:36:40,783 --> 00:36:43,333
Just her and her camera.
523
00:36:43,578 --> 00:36:46,748
There are thousands of photos
from her world travels.
524
00:37:20,865 --> 00:37:25,155
(John) Do you think Vivian would like
the attention that she's getting?
525
00:37:25,411 --> 00:37:27,791
I think she had a very...
I don't know... I don't think so.
526
00:37:28,039 --> 00:37:30,629
I think she was more
of a very private person.
527
00:37:30,875 --> 00:37:33,415
I don't... I think she...
she might have seen this
528
00:37:33,669 --> 00:37:35,839
as... as kind of an intrusion, you know?
529
00:37:39,592 --> 00:37:46,142
I can't help but to feel
a little uncomfortable or guilty
530
00:37:46,432 --> 00:37:52,982
exposing the work of a person
who did not want to be exposed.
531
00:37:54,941 --> 00:37:57,031
(Linda Matthews) She was so secretive.
532
00:37:57,568 --> 00:37:59,948
I think that she would like
her artwork to be honoured,
533
00:38:00,238 --> 00:38:03,198
but I don't think she personally
would have liked being in the limelight.
534
00:38:03,491 --> 00:38:05,451
I don't.
535
00:38:06,077 --> 00:38:08,407
She would never have let this happen,
536
00:38:08,704 --> 00:38:10,794
had she known about it.
537
00:38:11,082 --> 00:38:12,292
No, she never would have let it.
538
00:38:12,583 --> 00:38:14,593
She... That was her babies.
539
00:38:15,628 --> 00:38:18,258
She wouldn't have put her babies
on display.
540
00:38:20,299 --> 00:38:22,549
But I don't think she took all those
photographs
541
00:38:22,843 --> 00:38:24,303
for them to just dissolve into dust.
542
00:38:24,595 --> 00:38:27,425
I think she took those photographs
to be seen.
543
00:38:30,685 --> 00:38:36,565
I find the mystery of it
more interesting than her work itself.
544
00:38:38,192 --> 00:38:42,702
I'd love to know more about this person.
545
00:38:44,699 --> 00:38:47,659
And I don't think
you can do that through her work.
546
00:38:47,952 --> 00:38:49,872
(John) So she didn't tell you anything
547
00:38:50,162 --> 00:38:52,422
about where she came from,
her background?
548
00:38:52,707 --> 00:38:55,207
You didn't know anything?
Nobody pried into that?
549
00:38:55,501 --> 00:38:57,711
No. I... I... Not really.
550
00:38:58,629 --> 00:39:01,969
(John) Did you know anything
about Vivian?
551
00:39:02,258 --> 00:39:05,138
- Her family, her past?
- No.
552
00:39:06,470 --> 00:39:10,640
It's amazing, isn't it, that you're friendly
with someone for, like, ten years,
553
00:39:10,933 --> 00:39:16,193
and that you don't know anything more
about them than this much?
554
00:39:16,480 --> 00:39:18,320
We always thought she was French.
555
00:39:18,607 --> 00:39:21,147
Now, she's kind of, what... Austrian?
556
00:39:21,444 --> 00:39:26,204
I mean, she's from Als...
from Alsace-Lorraine or something?
557
00:39:27,575 --> 00:39:28,775
(John) She's from New York.
558
00:39:29,076 --> 00:39:30,786
From New York?
What do you mean, from New York?
559
00:39:31,078 --> 00:39:33,118
- (John) Well, she was born in New York.
- She was?
560
00:39:33,956 --> 00:39:37,126
- (John) She was born in New York.
- No. Really?
561
00:39:37,418 --> 00:39:40,668
Oh, I thought she was born in Europe.
I thought she was French.
562
00:39:41,881 --> 00:39:44,261
How did she acquire that accent?
563
00:39:49,513 --> 00:39:52,393
(John) So, where's Vivian from?
564
00:39:52,683 --> 00:39:56,273
She's from New York City,
born February 1st of 1926.
565
00:39:56,812 --> 00:39:59,322
Speaking from a professional standpoint,
566
00:39:59,607 --> 00:40:02,067
compared to what I've done in the past,
567
00:40:02,360 --> 00:40:06,700
this is ranked up real high
on the list of difficulty.
568
00:40:06,989 --> 00:40:09,779
The families usually
have some consistency
569
00:40:10,076 --> 00:40:11,946
as to where they're located,
570
00:40:12,244 --> 00:40:15,624
I at least have them in public record,
where I can find information about them.
571
00:40:15,915 --> 00:40:19,625
Not like this one.
The whole family is a mystery family.
572
00:40:19,919 --> 00:40:22,249
There's a few things
that we know about Vivian Maier.
573
00:40:22,546 --> 00:40:25,506
One, we know that she was never married.
She was a spinster.
574
00:40:25,800 --> 00:40:28,970
She had no husband,
she had no children.
575
00:40:29,970 --> 00:40:31,600
Her parents are both dead.
576
00:40:31,889 --> 00:40:33,969
Vivian did have a brother,
an older brother.
577
00:40:34,266 --> 00:40:36,306
Clearly, he's probably dead.
578
00:40:36,602 --> 00:40:38,562
All of them seemed to be private.
579
00:40:38,854 --> 00:40:41,944
All of them seemed to want nothing to do
with the rest of their families.
580
00:40:42,233 --> 00:40:46,453
All of them seemed to be disconnected
from the remainder of their family.
581
00:40:46,737 --> 00:40:50,987
She had one aunt, who was
to leave everything to a friend in her will.
582
00:40:51,283 --> 00:40:54,453
Not to family, but to a friend.
And this is the reason why.
583
00:40:54,745 --> 00:40:57,745
She says here,
and I'm quoting directly from her will,
584
00:40:58,040 --> 00:41:01,840
"1 make no provision
for any of my relatives,
585
00:41:02,128 --> 00:41:05,168
"for reasons best known to me,
586
00:41:05,464 --> 00:41:09,894
"which I have disclosed
to a few of my intimate friends."
587
00:41:10,970 --> 00:41:13,600
At the time of Alma's death in 1965,
588
00:41:13,889 --> 00:41:17,019
Vivian was obviously alive,
her only niece.
589
00:41:17,268 --> 00:41:21,358
Whatever her hangup was,
it went to her grave with her.
590
00:41:21,647 --> 00:41:25,227
Vivian's father was out of the picture
very early on.
591
00:41:25,526 --> 00:41:29,236
So the census records show
that Vivian's living with her mother.
592
00:41:31,073 --> 00:41:33,533
But I did know
that she lived in France for a while,
593
00:41:33,826 --> 00:41:35,786
and that her mother was from France.
594
00:41:36,036 --> 00:41:38,366
So my guess was that
there was family in France.
595
00:41:38,622 --> 00:41:44,382
Because the thing is, the 1949 photos
and the 1959 photos
596
00:41:44,628 --> 00:41:46,588
are the same village.
597
00:41:46,839 --> 00:41:49,009
So I know she was
returning to the same place.
598
00:41:49,967 --> 00:41:52,507
So I started looking up all the stuff
that she had from France,
599
00:41:52,761 --> 00:41:55,061
I started looking at
the photographs of France,
600
00:41:55,306 --> 00:41:57,846
looking at the little towns
and the church steeples,
601
00:41:58,100 --> 00:42:01,270
and how this church steeple looks
and how that one looks in this little village.
602
00:42:01,520 --> 00:42:04,440
And I would go on the internet
and look up little villages in France,
603
00:42:04,690 --> 00:42:05,860
and try to match the steeples.
604
00:42:06,108 --> 00:42:08,528
It's like matching a fingerprint.
605
00:42:08,777 --> 00:42:11,487
I knew I had at least
one of the villages that she was in.
606
00:42:11,739 --> 00:42:13,779
Found.
607
00:42:16,160 --> 00:42:18,370
Saint-Julien and Saint-Bonnet,
608
00:42:18,621 --> 00:42:23,671
in this remote little sheep-herder village
in the French Alps.
609
00:42:23,918 --> 00:42:25,878
Population 250.
610
00:42:27,213 --> 00:42:30,383
(Linda Matthews) She might have been
offended that you found her little town.
611
00:42:30,633 --> 00:42:32,553
That was none of your business.
612
00:42:33,552 --> 00:42:35,762
She might say, "God, oh, God.
613
00:42:36,847 --> 00:42:38,887
"Why did he do that?"
614
00:42:40,976 --> 00:42:44,766
For some reason,
my curiosity is overwhelming
615
00:42:45,022 --> 00:42:47,152
to find out more about Vivian.
616
00:42:48,609 --> 00:42:50,359
I'm uncovering an artist.
617
00:42:50,611 --> 00:42:54,571
If I'm leaving this giant boulder unturned,
618
00:42:54,823 --> 00:42:57,543
because I don't go here,
it would be a mistake.
619
00:43:14,426 --> 00:43:16,466
(Speaking French)
620
00:43:46,292 --> 00:43:48,342
(Woman)
621
00:44:08,606 --> 00:44:10,476
- Vivian took this.
- (Woman) Are you sure?
622
00:44:10,733 --> 00:44:13,783
Yes. 100 per cent.
I have this same print.
623
00:44:15,529 --> 00:44:17,739
Vivian took this picture. This is her print.
624
00:44:19,825 --> 00:44:21,865
Oui.
625
00:44:22,745 --> 00:44:24,075
He says, "Aren't you happy?"
626
00:44:25,122 --> 00:44:27,332
Ah, her box camera.
627
00:44:27,583 --> 00:44:29,133
(Both laugh)
628
00:44:29,376 --> 00:44:31,376
I have... I have a similar one.
629
00:44:32,379 --> 00:44:34,759
- No, that's her mum's camera.
- Vivian's mom?
630
00:44:47,436 --> 00:44:48,396
Oh...
631
00:44:50,230 --> 00:44:51,520
- That's Vivian?
- Yes.
632
00:44:52,566 --> 00:44:54,316
(John) Wow.
633
00:44:57,446 --> 00:45:01,326
Another thing I found
in Vivian's stuff was this letter.
634
00:45:01,575 --> 00:45:06,745
It was written in French, and it's talking
about a photography lab in France.
635
00:45:17,424 --> 00:45:19,644
- And you can do... like this.
- Oui.
636
00:45:19,885 --> 00:45:22,925
The letter starts out, "Dear Mr Simon..."
637
00:46:03,929 --> 00:46:05,429
Ah. (whispers)
638
00:46:12,604 --> 00:46:14,154
Aah! D'accord.
639
00:46:56,064 --> 00:46:57,484
Ah!
640
00:47:00,527 --> 00:47:03,567
Previously, we thought
Vivian had no intentions
641
00:47:03,822 --> 00:47:07,032
of having anybody else
print her work or show her work.
642
00:47:07,284 --> 00:47:10,584
This letter proves
that assumption wrong.
643
00:47:10,829 --> 00:47:12,919
Vivian knew
she was a good photographer,
644
00:47:13,165 --> 00:47:15,495
and she knew
that these photographs were good.
645
00:47:15,751 --> 00:47:17,671
She wanted to show them to people.
646
00:47:17,920 --> 00:47:20,550
She may not have had that happen
while she was alive,
647
00:47:20,798 --> 00:47:22,928
but we're doing it now.
648
00:47:24,009 --> 00:47:27,389
I stopped scanning myself,
because I just couldn't keep up with it.
649
00:47:32,935 --> 00:47:36,145
There's a lab in New York
with technicians scanning her work,
650
00:47:36,396 --> 00:47:38,816
Monday through Friday, nine to five,
651
00:47:39,066 --> 00:47:41,686
at a rate of about a few thousand a week.
652
00:47:42,778 --> 00:47:44,738
I've been developing
the black and white films,
653
00:47:44,988 --> 00:47:47,318
so I have about a couple of hundred
left to develop.
654
00:47:51,078 --> 00:47:53,368
It's a very complicated
and tricky procedure,
655
00:47:53,622 --> 00:47:55,582
because you have
to get the formula correct,
656
00:47:55,833 --> 00:47:58,963
and there's only one chance
to get it right.
657
00:48:00,462 --> 00:48:01,922
It's... it's magical.
658
00:48:12,099 --> 00:48:14,479
We don't know
what she would have printed,
659
00:48:15,936 --> 00:48:18,146
what she would have chosen or edited.
660
00:48:20,691 --> 00:48:25,151
We're seeing work now for the first time
that Vivian never saw herself.
661
00:48:27,197 --> 00:48:31,787
When you contacted me,
I wasn't sure if I wanted to get involved
662
00:48:32,035 --> 00:48:34,535
in a project with posthumous prints.
663
00:48:35,539 --> 00:48:38,289
I just didn't think it would be
the right fit for the gallery.
664
00:48:38,542 --> 00:48:41,002
This is the room
where we store our photographs.
665
00:48:41,253 --> 00:48:44,133
I think there are about between
25 and 30,000 photographs in here.
666
00:48:44,381 --> 00:48:46,631
I mean, it's more than most museums have.
667
00:48:46,884 --> 00:48:50,724
Vivian Maier, we've had more interest
in this work
668
00:48:50,971 --> 00:48:55,311
than perhaps any other photographer
I've ever worked with.
669
00:49:02,274 --> 00:49:05,494
It's a big problem trying
to get her work into institutions.
670
00:49:06,778 --> 00:49:09,318
The problem is that the art world
establishment
671
00:49:09,573 --> 00:49:11,493
still won't recognise Vivian's work.
672
00:49:11,783 --> 00:49:16,503
Museums usually deal with
the final product, the print,
673
00:49:16,788 --> 00:49:19,458
that was made by the artist
in the artist's life.
674
00:49:20,959 --> 00:49:25,879
They don't want to interpret an artist's work
from where they left off.
675
00:49:26,924 --> 00:49:29,644
That's bogus, because Gary Winogrand
676
00:49:29,927 --> 00:49:33,177
had a desk full of rolls of film
that he never developed.
677
00:49:33,472 --> 00:49:35,022
So they're developing 'em.
678
00:49:35,307 --> 00:49:38,347
Eugene Atget's work
was printed after his death,
679
00:49:38,644 --> 00:49:40,774
and then ended up
being acquired by MoMA.
680
00:49:41,063 --> 00:49:44,653
I mean, it's frustrating,
because it's being clone and...
681
00:49:45,567 --> 00:49:47,317
but nobody wants to do it
for Vivian's work.
682
00:49:47,611 --> 00:49:49,781
She did print some of her work,
683
00:49:50,072 --> 00:49:54,452
but it... it was largely
not the best edit of her work.
684
00:49:54,743 --> 00:49:57,503
She was a masterful photographer,
685
00:49:57,788 --> 00:50:00,788
but printing was not her thing.
686
00:50:02,459 --> 00:50:05,919
That's common, though.
I mean, Cartier-Bresson hated printing,
687
00:50:06,213 --> 00:50:08,093
and Robert Frank wasn't a good printer.
688
00:50:08,382 --> 00:50:09,882
But they hire printers.
689
00:50:11,093 --> 00:50:13,053
They hire somebody to print for them.
690
00:50:13,720 --> 00:50:18,020
Good work is good work, and it's
recognised that this is really great art.
691
00:50:18,308 --> 00:50:21,398
I do think her work needs
to be appreciated by... by the world.
692
00:50:24,773 --> 00:50:26,363
These are the new prints.
693
00:50:27,067 --> 00:50:29,567
(John) Cool. Yeah, these are great.
Thank you for showing me.
694
00:50:29,861 --> 00:50:31,741
They're yours.
695
00:50:32,030 --> 00:50:35,870
The only way this work can move forward
is if there's money that is made.
696
00:50:36,159 --> 00:50:38,579
The sale of prints will be a part of that.
697
00:50:43,875 --> 00:50:49,125
Of course, I wish that I could
give her money, you know...
698
00:50:49,423 --> 00:50:52,633
Uh... She's gone.
I mean, there's nothing I can do.
699
00:50:54,636 --> 00:50:56,676
(Carole Pohn)
She always had a money problem.
700
00:50:56,972 --> 00:50:59,142
God knows, she probably
could have used the money.
701
00:50:59,433 --> 00:51:01,523
Too bad she wasn't
discovered ten years earlier.
702
00:51:08,900 --> 00:51:10,740
(Miaows)
703
00:51:11,903 --> 00:51:13,913
- Marble!
- (Quacking)
704
00:51:14,948 --> 00:51:16,988
Yeah, you two.
705
00:51:18,618 --> 00:51:22,038
Here's the picture.
Miss Maier's right in the corner.
706
00:51:22,330 --> 00:51:24,580
I won't call her Vivian because... (Laughs)
707
00:51:24,875 --> 00:51:27,205
She'd have your guts for garters
if you called her that.
708
00:51:27,502 --> 00:51:31,592
Not Mrs. Not Vivian.
She was Miss Maiers.
709
00:51:32,549 --> 00:51:35,429
She was my governess
from when I was five years old,
710
00:51:35,719 --> 00:51:37,849
up until I was about 11 years old.
711
00:51:38,138 --> 00:51:40,218
I've got in my baby book the exact date.
712
00:51:40,515 --> 00:51:45,435
It's like March of '67 until about 1974.
713
00:51:46,730 --> 00:51:52,110
Inger and I were best friends, and so I would
spend a lot of time with Miss Maier.
714
00:51:52,402 --> 00:51:56,282
She would take us down to the city,
and we would just walk.
715
00:51:56,573 --> 00:52:00,123
In the worst parts of town,
she'd walk very quickly,
716
00:52:00,410 --> 00:52:03,120
and so my little legs
had to fly to keep up with her.
717
00:52:03,413 --> 00:52:05,543
She would swing her arm just like this.
718
00:52:06,666 --> 00:52:09,166
And then her stride was just massive.
719
00:52:09,461 --> 00:52:12,011
Inger used to just beg her to slow down,
720
00:52:12,297 --> 00:52:14,667
and she would just drag her alongside.
721
00:52:15,842 --> 00:52:17,142
Poor thing.
722
00:52:17,427 --> 00:52:19,677
(Inger Raymond)
She'd take pictures of everything.
723
00:52:19,971 --> 00:52:21,851
She would see a subject.
724
00:52:22,891 --> 00:52:24,771
Something that would interest her.
725
00:52:25,060 --> 00:52:27,440
She'd open her camera,
726
00:52:27,729 --> 00:52:29,269
she'd focus it...
727
00:52:29,564 --> 00:52:31,364
(Ginger Tam)
These poor, you know, people,
728
00:52:31,650 --> 00:52:34,360
she would literally ask them
to... to, like, pose for her.
729
00:52:34,653 --> 00:52:36,323
She didn't tend to pose people.
730
00:52:36,613 --> 00:52:37,743
She's like, "Stand there, wait."
731
00:52:38,031 --> 00:52:39,491
It was just the way it was.
732
00:52:39,783 --> 00:52:41,663
"Impoverished people. Take picture!"
733
00:52:41,952 --> 00:52:45,082
Or somebody crying, it was just, bam!
734
00:52:46,623 --> 00:52:47,833
They... You know?
735
00:52:48,125 --> 00:52:50,125
Like, "Oh, my God,
what is this woman doing?"
736
00:52:50,418 --> 00:52:53,088
(Ginger Tam) We'd joke about hitting her
over the head with a camera,
737
00:52:53,380 --> 00:52:54,920
because she embarrassed us so much.
738
00:52:55,215 --> 00:52:57,675
It was imposing and rude.
739
00:52:57,926 --> 00:53:01,556
They felt, I'm sure, that they were
being mocked in some way.
740
00:53:01,805 --> 00:53:03,215
I'm surprised she didn't get shot.
741
00:53:04,516 --> 00:53:08,846
My mom put her foot down and wouldn't let
Miss Maier take me into the slum areas.
742
00:53:11,356 --> 00:53:14,476
She loved to read the paper, she liked it
that we took the New York Times,
743
00:53:14,734 --> 00:53:16,074
and she read it every clay,
744
00:53:16,319 --> 00:53:21,829
and she always had an eye for the bizarre,
the grotesque, the incongruous.
745
00:53:22,075 --> 00:53:24,695
She wasn't interested
in sweetness and light.
746
00:53:28,248 --> 00:53:29,578
(Sighs)
747
00:53:29,833 --> 00:53:35,883
She liked headlines
that revealed the folly of individuals.
748
00:53:37,549 --> 00:53:40,969
Stories that would enable her
to basically say, "I told you so."
749
00:53:41,219 --> 00:53:43,389
"I told you so."
750
00:53:43,638 --> 00:53:47,018
Some man murders his wife
and then gets caught in cold blood,
751
00:53:47,267 --> 00:53:48,387
"I told you so."
752
00:53:48,643 --> 00:53:52,443
I mean, these things
that revealed the folly of humanity.
753
00:54:11,917 --> 00:54:17,127
If you look at her art,
she sees the bizarreness of life,
754
00:54:18,131 --> 00:54:22,511
the incongruity of life, and the
unappealingness of human beings.
755
00:54:26,514 --> 00:54:29,314
There were little things,
all the time,
756
00:54:29,559 --> 00:54:32,519
that she was just plain...
757
00:54:32,771 --> 00:54:36,861
in microscopic ways,
just chipping at me.
758
00:54:38,068 --> 00:54:39,528
All the time.
759
00:54:40,528 --> 00:54:43,318
I would go down,
with my allowance money,
760
00:54:43,573 --> 00:54:45,493
to the crafts store,
761
00:54:45,742 --> 00:54:51,122
and buy myself a thousand little tiny,
you know, like rainbows and... (Laughs)
762
00:54:51,373 --> 00:54:53,423
Glass tchotchkes.
763
00:54:54,251 --> 00:54:57,881
Viv would look
at my trove of tchotchkes and hate it.
764
00:54:59,256 --> 00:55:02,176
She would get a big mop bucket
765
00:55:02,425 --> 00:55:06,045
and she would fill it with
hot, soapy water, yes, and ammonia.
766
00:55:06,304 --> 00:55:09,314
And she would have the ammonia
be such a strength
767
00:55:09,557 --> 00:55:11,307
that you couldn't be near the bucket.
768
00:55:11,559 --> 00:55:13,849
Clearly, to need that much ammonia,
769
00:55:14,104 --> 00:55:17,404
you would surely be cleaning
something very, very dirty.
770
00:55:21,236 --> 00:55:23,276
She would take her arm,
771
00:55:24,572 --> 00:55:27,202
and just swipe all the tchotchkes
into the bucket.
772
00:55:27,450 --> 00:55:30,950
They're crashing and grinding together,
and smashing,
773
00:55:31,204 --> 00:55:33,084
and they're all covered in ammonia...
774
00:55:33,331 --> 00:55:35,251
(Laughs)
775
00:55:37,252 --> 00:55:41,802
Me, I sort of just quietly tolerated
whatever was happening to me in my life.
776
00:55:42,048 --> 00:55:43,468
My brother acted out,
777
00:55:43,717 --> 00:55:48,257
and I don't think that she had good ways
of coping with his behaviour.
778
00:55:48,513 --> 00:55:51,273
She, uh, sort of ditched us.
779
00:55:51,516 --> 00:55:54,436
We were all taking a walk together,
and she ducked down an alley
780
00:55:54,686 --> 00:55:56,686
and just disappeared.
781
00:55:56,938 --> 00:55:58,938
The police finally found us.
782
00:56:00,775 --> 00:56:03,275
I think she wanted to scare us.
783
00:56:03,528 --> 00:56:07,528
I remember getting lectured by the police.
"You can't leave your baby-sitter."
784
00:56:07,782 --> 00:56:09,662
And me saying, "No, no!
785
00:56:09,909 --> 00:56:11,749
"My baby-sitter left me!"
786
00:56:14,456 --> 00:56:16,826
There were some accidents...
787
00:56:17,083 --> 00:56:21,173
which I knew weren't accidents,
everybody knew weren't really accidents.
788
00:56:21,421 --> 00:56:22,961
All of a sudden, there's a kid screaming
789
00:56:23,214 --> 00:56:25,434
in the basement with the door shut
and the lights off.
790
00:56:25,675 --> 00:56:27,545
Yeah. That kind of thing.
791
00:56:27,802 --> 00:56:30,012
She was mean.
I don't know how else to say it.
792
00:56:30,263 --> 00:56:32,473
I don't know, she had, like, a dark side.
793
00:56:32,724 --> 00:56:34,814
I remember one time she said, uh...
794
00:56:36,269 --> 00:56:39,439
"These men, they'll have you sit on...
on their laps.
795
00:56:39,689 --> 00:56:42,399
"And then you'll feel something poking you."
796
00:56:44,319 --> 00:56:46,449
And I can't remember
the context of when she said that,
797
00:56:46,696 --> 00:56:50,116
but it just was, she had this,
like, anger in her towards men.
798
00:56:50,367 --> 00:56:52,407
And now, I know exactly
what she was talking about,
799
00:56:52,660 --> 00:56:57,000
but as a kid, I really... I knew what she was
saying was dark, and a little not right.
800
00:57:07,467 --> 00:57:11,347
I've seen her more than once jump
back in fear, you know, from a man.
801
00:57:11,596 --> 00:57:14,096
She said several times
over the several years,
802
00:57:14,349 --> 00:57:16,639
men, all they were out to do is ruin you,
803
00:57:16,893 --> 00:57:19,273
stay away from them,
be careful of them,
804
00:57:19,521 --> 00:57:22,521
you know, that all they want is sex.
805
00:57:23,358 --> 00:57:26,738
She was always afraid of being touched.
806
00:57:28,446 --> 00:57:30,236
I remember she was standing up
at this dump,
807
00:57:30,490 --> 00:57:32,990
taking a picture of some sort of incident.
808
00:57:33,243 --> 00:57:35,503
The man apparently
thought she was falling.
809
00:57:35,745 --> 00:57:39,115
He reached up, and all she saw
was a man reaching for her,
810
00:57:39,374 --> 00:57:41,134
and she decked him.
811
00:57:41,376 --> 00:57:43,546
She thought he was attacking her,
812
00:57:43,795 --> 00:57:45,705
and gave him a concussion,
813
00:57:45,964 --> 00:57:47,974
uh, and sent him to the hospital.
814
00:57:49,300 --> 00:57:52,640
I would bet money that she was, erm...
815
00:57:53,638 --> 00:57:56,638
brutalised in some way,
attacked in some...
816
00:57:56,891 --> 00:57:59,891
I mean, or, you know...
molested, whatever.
817
00:58:00,145 --> 00:58:03,645
I hate to say that, but something
happened to her that was awful.
818
00:58:03,898 --> 00:58:06,818
Because nobody would act,
like, the way she did.
819
00:58:07,610 --> 00:58:10,660
I remember some of the more
strong emotional things, I'm afraid.
820
00:58:10,905 --> 00:58:15,905
It takes... It's harder to remember
some of the other, erm...
821
00:58:18,204 --> 00:58:19,464
(Sighs)
822
00:58:19,706 --> 00:58:22,416
I don't know if you want to go into this,
but I will. I will.
823
00:58:22,667 --> 00:58:24,537
(Sighs)
824
00:58:26,463 --> 00:58:29,883
I mean, there were things that happened
to me that were not good.
825
00:58:31,342 --> 00:58:33,682
Miss Maier was force-feeding me.
826
00:58:33,928 --> 00:58:35,218
Um...
827
00:58:35,472 --> 00:58:38,772
Forcing me to eat,
because I wasn't finishing my plate.
828
00:58:39,017 --> 00:58:42,807
My parents found out,
and my dad got angry, but...
829
00:58:43,062 --> 00:58:46,112
My dad found out exactly how it was...
830
00:58:47,859 --> 00:58:51,319
She would hold me down,
she would shove the food in my throat,
831
00:58:51,571 --> 00:58:54,491
and then she would choke me
until I would swallow it.
832
00:58:55,492 --> 00:58:57,992
And she would do that
over and over again.
833
00:59:02,373 --> 00:59:04,883
There was very much
of a dark side to her
834
00:59:05,126 --> 00:59:07,336
that I have not gone into.
835
00:59:10,048 --> 00:59:12,298
She would lose it sometimes.
836
00:59:12,550 --> 00:59:15,970
The first time she hit me
was when I was five years old,
837
00:59:16,221 --> 00:59:20,351
because I was trying to learn
to tie my shoelaces.
838
00:59:21,351 --> 00:59:22,811
And I wasn't doing it right.
839
00:59:23,061 --> 00:59:24,901
And she got very frustrated with me,
840
00:59:25,146 --> 00:59:28,566
and so she started slamming my head
into the side of this bookcase.
841
00:59:28,816 --> 00:59:32,856
I mean, she wouldn't hit me in the face,
obviously, I didn't have bruises there,
842
00:59:33,112 --> 00:59:35,452
but she'd grab me by the wrists
and swing me around the room
843
00:59:35,698 --> 00:59:38,788
and slam me into things
when she got really upset about something.
844
00:59:39,035 --> 00:59:43,035
And I was eight years old
before I could break her grip.
845
00:59:43,289 --> 00:59:45,379
(Sighs)
After that, she didn't do that again.
846
00:59:45,625 --> 00:59:47,335
I was strong enough.
847
00:59:49,504 --> 00:59:52,264
I mean... she was a brilliant person,
848
00:59:53,216 --> 00:59:55,716
and I think she really cared,
and I think she tried.
849
00:59:56,761 --> 00:59:59,811
And I don't know if any of the others
will ever talk about that, if they...
850
01:00:00,056 --> 01:00:01,306
if it ever happened to them.
851
01:00:01,558 --> 01:00:04,348
I don't know, maybe she got it together.
I'm hoping she did.
852
01:00:10,191 --> 01:00:12,071
I really hate saying these things about her,
853
01:00:12,318 --> 01:00:15,408
because I've always felt guilty
about not keeping Viv for longer.
854
01:00:15,655 --> 01:00:19,825
My husband and I were talking then
about having a foster child.
855
01:00:20,076 --> 01:00:24,036
Viv said "If you want to take care of
somebody, why don't you take care of me?"
856
01:00:24,289 --> 01:00:26,869
And then she kind of laughed,
but she meant it.
857
01:00:27,542 --> 01:00:33,972
I think she really wanted to be
brought in to be a member of our family.
858
01:00:34,215 --> 01:00:40,465
But that... wasn't really
what I had bargained for.
859
01:00:46,185 --> 01:00:48,395
So there it is.
860
01:00:53,568 --> 01:00:55,398
Then this little house...
861
01:00:55,653 --> 01:00:58,163
Miss Maiers lived upstairs.
862
01:00:58,448 --> 01:01:01,778
(Inger Raymond) My father did provide
a room for her above his office.
863
01:01:02,076 --> 01:01:04,866
Uh, I only...
only had a chance to see it once.
864
01:01:05,163 --> 01:01:07,793
Um, back when I... I snuck up behind her.
865
01:01:08,082 --> 01:01:09,542
Cos she kept a padlock on it.
866
01:01:09,834 --> 01:01:12,304
- (Door creaks)
- (John speaking)
867
01:01:12,587 --> 01:01:14,587
So, yeah, this is totally different.
868
01:01:17,592 --> 01:01:19,342
This was the forbidden zone.
869
01:01:19,636 --> 01:01:21,886
No one was allowed to see
where Miss Maiers lived.
870
01:01:22,180 --> 01:01:24,020
Huh.
871
01:01:24,974 --> 01:01:28,734
Miss Maier went in there and she left the
door open enough for me to see,
872
01:01:29,020 --> 01:01:32,270
and the room was literally filled,
floor to ceiling, with newspapers.
873
01:01:32,565 --> 01:01:34,775
See how the floor is sloped?
874
01:01:35,068 --> 01:01:38,528
(Inger Raymond) I told my dad, and he said,
"That's why the floor is sagging so much."
875
01:01:38,821 --> 01:01:42,201
He ended up having
to put a steel post in his office,
876
01:01:42,492 --> 01:01:44,832
because the floor was sagging
and he didn't know why!
877
01:01:45,119 --> 01:01:46,619
It was just totally full.
878
01:01:52,752 --> 01:01:55,422
This floor was Viv's domain.
879
01:01:56,506 --> 01:02:01,136
It occurred to me that maybe I would need
to go up there when she wasn't home,
880
01:02:01,427 --> 01:02:03,387
so she grudgingly gave me a key.
881
01:02:04,180 --> 01:02:06,520
And, erm... And so I went in.
882
01:02:08,351 --> 01:02:10,481
You could tell where she had been walking,
883
01:02:10,770 --> 01:02:15,690
and it was just this narrow path that
you could just barely traverse like this.
884
01:02:15,983 --> 01:02:18,153
And where would the bed have been
right here...
885
01:02:18,444 --> 01:02:21,324
stacks of newspapers,
almost to the ceiling.
886
01:02:25,118 --> 01:02:28,538
You may think I'm exaggerating.
No. I am not.
887
01:02:47,014 --> 01:02:51,774
Just stacked. Stacked, stacked,
stacked, stacked, stacked, everywhere.
888
01:02:52,061 --> 01:02:55,401
High, you know, high stacks of paper.
889
01:02:55,690 --> 01:02:58,150
How she even could get to the paper...
890
01:02:58,443 --> 01:03:01,743
I don't even know how much
she even looked at the paper.
891
01:03:06,242 --> 01:03:08,162
(Sighs)
892
01:03:09,704 --> 01:03:13,254
I began to see that she was stacking
newspaper elsewhere in the house.
893
01:03:13,541 --> 01:03:17,461
In the basement, and in the back,
we have a little back entryway,
894
01:03:17,754 --> 01:03:20,014
and she would
stack newspaper out there.
895
01:03:20,298 --> 01:03:24,548
Now, the idea was always that there were
articles she wanted to save,
896
01:03:24,844 --> 01:03:29,224
for the day when she did get around
to cutting out the parts she wanted to keep.
897
01:03:30,224 --> 01:03:36,314
I... It concerned me,
but I thought, "Whatever.
898
01:03:36,606 --> 01:03:38,606
"Whatever."
899
01:03:38,900 --> 01:03:40,740
Erm...
900
01:03:41,819 --> 01:03:42,739
(Sighs)
901
01:03:43,029 --> 01:03:47,199
I gave her a ride
to her place of employment.
902
01:03:47,492 --> 01:03:51,162
I looked at her desk,
and piles of stuff there.
903
01:03:51,454 --> 01:03:57,794
She was certain that her employers
were coming into the room she had,
904
01:03:58,085 --> 01:04:01,255
and going through her items.
905
01:04:01,547 --> 01:04:05,887
She would rig the books
and so forth on her desk,
906
01:04:06,177 --> 01:04:10,177
so that if they were moved half an inch,
907
01:04:10,473 --> 01:04:12,683
she would know that when she got back,
908
01:04:12,975 --> 01:04:15,135
or so, that was Vivian's story.
909
01:04:15,436 --> 01:04:20,726
And she was also certain that people
were looking through binoculars
910
01:04:21,025 --> 01:04:24,525
and could see through
the window of her room.
911
01:04:26,906 --> 01:04:29,156
She was progressively getting
more and more reclusive,
912
01:04:29,450 --> 01:04:30,370
more and more of a hoarder.
913
01:04:30,660 --> 01:04:32,290
Everybody was saying, resoundingly,
914
01:04:32,578 --> 01:04:34,788
"Oh, my God, you've got
to get rid of your nanny."
915
01:04:35,081 --> 01:04:38,081
I don't think that Mom and Dad
really realised
916
01:04:38,334 --> 01:04:42,964
the extent to which
she was living with mental illness,
917
01:04:43,214 --> 01:04:44,634
cos she was.
918
01:04:44,882 --> 01:04:47,132
She was. She was. She...
919
01:04:48,094 --> 01:04:50,144
She, um...
920
01:04:53,349 --> 01:04:55,809
Yeah. It was...
it was a little past eccentric.
921
01:04:56,894 --> 01:04:59,904
My neighbour said, "I'm painting the
bathroom, do you have newspaper?"
922
01:05:00,147 --> 01:05:02,897
I said, "Sure!" There was a huge stack
right by the back door.
923
01:05:03,150 --> 01:05:05,820
I gave him a big chunk like this,
I said, "Sure, go ahead."
924
01:05:06,070 --> 01:05:10,490
Well, when Viv came home, she saw that
that stack of newspaper
925
01:05:10,741 --> 01:05:13,161
was shorter by three feet,
or two feet or whatever,
926
01:05:13,411 --> 01:05:16,371
and she was angry and horrified.
927
01:05:16,622 --> 01:05:19,632
"Who took my papers?
Who took my papers?"
928
01:05:21,252 --> 01:05:24,212
And she just went berserk.
I mean, she went crazy.
929
01:05:24,463 --> 01:05:28,013
She was... I remember an outside scene
with screaming and yelling,
930
01:05:28,259 --> 01:05:31,009
where she's yelling at this guy,
telling him to bring them back,
931
01:05:31,262 --> 01:05:33,562
but some already had paint on them,
or were ripped.
932
01:05:33,806 --> 01:05:37,096
"Now they're all covered with paint!
Now I can't use those papers!
933
01:05:37,351 --> 01:05:40,981
"They're covered with paint now.
How could you give him my papers?"
934
01:05:41,939 --> 01:05:46,029
So I said... I just said, "Viv, those aren't
your papers. Those are my papers.
935
01:05:46,277 --> 01:05:48,697
"And there are too many papers
in this house!"
936
01:05:48,946 --> 01:05:53,406
I remember my parents telling me,
"Viv's not gonna be with us any more.
937
01:05:53,659 --> 01:05:56,079
"She's gotten too crazy."
938
01:05:57,121 --> 01:05:59,171
Like, not that she wasn't already crazy,
939
01:05:59,415 --> 01:06:03,205
but that the craziness has increased
to a level that we can't tolerate any more.
940
01:06:03,461 --> 01:06:06,301
I remember so clearly
having to say to her, "Viv...
941
01:06:08,341 --> 01:06:10,681
"1 think you're going to have
to look for another job."
942
01:06:10,927 --> 01:06:12,757
How hard it was to say that to her.
943
01:06:13,012 --> 01:06:16,722
But you know what?
I don't think she was even surprised.
944
01:06:16,974 --> 01:06:20,234
She looked back at me,
and she said, "Do you?" she said.
945
01:06:20,478 --> 01:06:22,518
"Do you?" she said. "Well...
946
01:06:23,564 --> 01:06:27,404
"then, what I want is two months' notice,
947
01:06:27,652 --> 01:06:30,612
"and two months' pay,"
or something like that.
948
01:06:30,863 --> 01:06:33,073
She gave me her sort of...
what she wanted,
949
01:06:33,324 --> 01:06:36,584
as if she had it on the tip of her tongue
and she'd figured it out.
950
01:06:36,827 --> 01:06:38,827
And I didn't know whether
that was because
951
01:06:39,080 --> 01:06:41,170
she had been dismissed from
positions often enough
952
01:06:41,415 --> 01:06:44,375
that she knew what to say,
953
01:06:44,627 --> 01:06:47,797
or whether she had,
in a way, anticipated it.
954
01:06:49,340 --> 01:06:52,130
My husband and I and our children,
after she was gone,
955
01:06:52,385 --> 01:06:55,465
do you know, we just jumped in the car
and drove up to Michigan,
956
01:06:55,721 --> 01:06:57,311
which is something we never used to do,
957
01:06:57,556 --> 01:07:01,266
just because it was a huge emotional thing,
not to have her...
958
01:07:02,186 --> 01:07:05,646
See, I'm still weeping about it,
because I really cared about Viv.
959
01:07:05,898 --> 01:07:09,358
And I think she cared about us,
and it was just one of those things,
960
01:07:09,610 --> 01:07:14,820
where she was a person
who didn't fit in very well.
961
01:07:16,158 --> 01:07:19,198
She just had those edges that couldn't...
962
01:07:19,453 --> 01:07:22,163
And I think we... Well, I flatter myself,
963
01:07:22,415 --> 01:07:25,625
I think we were one
of the most sympathetic,
964
01:07:25,876 --> 01:07:29,006
accepting and congenial families
that she worked with.
965
01:07:29,255 --> 01:07:31,665
I don't know that. I think it may be true.
966
01:07:31,924 --> 01:07:34,804
Erm, and we couldn't make it work.
967
01:07:40,391 --> 01:07:45,981
(Judy Swisher) In 1996, we were getting
my mother's house ready for sale,
968
01:07:46,230 --> 01:07:51,190
and when I told Vivian, I said, "You can
stay here for a couple of months.
969
01:07:51,444 --> 01:07:54,574
"1 won't put it on the market yet, you know,
we have to get things ready,
970
01:07:54,822 --> 01:07:58,582
"and, you know, I'm not...
I'm not kicking you out, you can stay."
971
01:07:59,618 --> 01:08:02,868
Vivian was to be there, you know,
and to show it,
972
01:08:03,122 --> 01:08:05,582
but she was not at all helpful
with the real estate people.
973
01:08:05,833 --> 01:08:07,713
She just didn't want to let them in.
974
01:08:07,960 --> 01:08:11,710
They were calling me, saying
she won't let them show the house...
975
01:08:11,964 --> 01:08:15,804
(Laughs) You know, "We've gotta...
You've gotta do something, Judy."
976
01:08:16,052 --> 01:08:19,472
So I would call her and say, "Vivian,
you have to let people see the house."
977
01:08:21,390 --> 01:08:24,730
They did manage to get in,
and they did manage to sell.
978
01:08:24,977 --> 01:08:28,107
I think we closed the last clay of the year.
979
01:08:32,151 --> 01:08:35,911
The lawyer called and said, "Judy,
we're just afraid she's not gonna be out."
980
01:08:36,155 --> 01:08:38,655
And I said, "She'll be out.
Don't worry. She will be out."
981
01:09:04,100 --> 01:09:05,680
(Carole Pohn) The last time I saw her,
982
01:09:05,935 --> 01:09:08,265
erm... I'm still unhappy about.
983
01:09:10,147 --> 01:09:13,277
It must have been, like... probably 2000.
984
01:09:14,318 --> 01:09:17,568
I was in Wilmette, going to the beach
with my daughter and her children
985
01:09:17,822 --> 01:09:19,742
and four other children of her friends.
986
01:09:19,990 --> 01:09:23,620
It was a hot summer day,
like, August, like, 100-degree day.
987
01:09:23,869 --> 01:09:26,709
And all of a sudden, we see this woman
walking down the street.
988
01:09:26,956 --> 01:09:29,246
And immediately, we were like,
"There's Vivian."
989
01:09:29,500 --> 01:09:31,500
(Carole Pohn) I hadn't seen her in 30 years.
990
01:09:32,711 --> 01:09:35,171
But we recognised each other at once.
991
01:09:37,424 --> 01:09:39,724
And we both...
"Oh, hi, how are you, Vivian?"
992
01:09:39,969 --> 01:09:42,969
and, "How are you, Carole?"
and "It's been so long."
993
01:09:43,222 --> 01:09:45,562
We were like, "We'll, it was great,
you know, to see you,"
994
01:09:45,808 --> 01:09:48,058
and, er, we said,
"We have... we have to get going."
995
01:09:48,310 --> 01:09:49,940
And she was like, "Please don't leave."
996
01:09:50,187 --> 01:09:52,267
She was like, "Carole!"
That's my mother's name.
997
01:09:52,523 --> 01:09:54,533
"Carole, please don't leave."
998
01:09:55,234 --> 01:09:57,034
(Carole Pohn) And you're
with a bunch of kids,
999
01:09:57,278 --> 01:09:59,858
and they're swirling around you,
and they want to go to the beach.
1000
01:10:00,114 --> 01:10:02,624
It's a hot summer day, you know.
You're, like, stuck.
1001
01:10:02,867 --> 01:10:05,997
And she kept saying
"Talk to me, let's talk, let's talk."
1002
01:10:06,245 --> 01:10:09,615
And I kept saying, "I can't do it, Vivian.
I have to go, I have to go."
1003
01:10:09,874 --> 01:10:13,004
She kept saying, "But you're my friend,
you're my friend."
1004
01:10:14,837 --> 01:10:16,507
And, um...
1005
01:10:16,755 --> 01:10:18,625
I dropped the ball.
1006
01:10:18,883 --> 01:10:21,723
That's all I can say. I feel badly about it.
1007
01:10:21,969 --> 01:10:27,019
And the, er... despair in her voice
about seeing a friend...
1008
01:10:28,100 --> 01:10:30,640
And I feel that I let her down.
1009
01:10:31,687 --> 01:10:33,607
So I proceeded
to go to the beach with the kids.
1010
01:10:33,856 --> 01:10:36,316
I said, "Follow us,"
but she didn't wanna do that, so...
1011
01:10:36,567 --> 01:10:39,027
that was the end of that one.
1012
01:10:39,862 --> 01:10:43,572
I do remember once she wouldn't
tell me where we were going.
1013
01:10:43,824 --> 01:10:45,704
"I don't want to tell you. It's a surprise."
1014
01:10:46,911 --> 01:10:48,951
She took me to the stock yards.
1015
01:10:51,498 --> 01:10:54,588
It didn't come into
my consciousness that,
1016
01:10:54,835 --> 01:10:57,495
"Oh, this is where they go
to kill the animals."
1017
01:10:59,673 --> 01:11:02,643
There was a, uh, trailer full of sheep.
1018
01:11:05,429 --> 01:11:08,769
I do remember guys
poking at them with sticks
1019
01:11:09,016 --> 01:11:11,306
to get them out down this long ramp.
1020
01:11:13,270 --> 01:11:15,110
After they were done
offloading the sheep,
1021
01:11:15,356 --> 01:11:17,816
they started throwing out a dead sheep.
1022
01:11:18,859 --> 01:11:20,689
The one that got trampled.
1023
01:11:22,529 --> 01:11:24,699
That was the first time I ever saw death.
1024
01:11:27,660 --> 01:11:30,700
Looking back, thinking about it,
it didn't bother me.
1025
01:11:31,705 --> 01:11:34,495
It was just kind of odd,
I couldn't understand it.
1026
01:11:37,461 --> 01:11:40,971
I've always been a critter person,
and these are my guys, the sheep.
1027
01:11:41,215 --> 01:11:43,045
(Bleating)
1028
01:11:45,928 --> 01:11:49,718
The end of her life was something that
I worried about when she worked for me.
1029
01:11:49,974 --> 01:11:52,854
I thought, "How can this end for her?"
1030
01:11:53,102 --> 01:11:54,562
I don't think it had a happy ending.
1031
01:11:54,812 --> 01:11:58,152
I was very glad that these men that
she took care of when they were little kids
1032
01:11:58,399 --> 01:12:00,569
kind of came to her rescue.
1033
01:12:00,818 --> 01:12:05,278
They got her an apartment
and paid for her rent.
1034
01:12:14,081 --> 01:12:16,331
- (John) Do you... do you live in the area?
- Yes.
1035
01:12:16,583 --> 01:12:19,633
Do you remember a woman
who used to sit on this bench a lot,
1036
01:12:19,920 --> 01:12:21,630
wearing a big floppy hat?
1037
01:12:21,880 --> 01:12:23,760
Erm, was she the French lady?
1038
01:12:24,049 --> 01:12:25,379
Yeah, I remember her.
1039
01:12:25,676 --> 01:12:30,136
People who still, erm, live around here,
yeah, we remember her.
1040
01:12:31,098 --> 01:12:34,348
She was here a lot, sitting on the bench.
1041
01:12:35,269 --> 01:12:37,729
But I don't think anybody
really talked to her.
1042
01:12:38,397 --> 01:12:40,817
There's a lot of eccentric people
around here,
1043
01:12:41,108 --> 01:12:43,068
and I just thought she was one of them.
1044
01:12:44,153 --> 01:12:45,993
You knew that, just leave her alone.
1045
01:12:48,824 --> 01:12:50,744
Sometimes she'd be at the dumpsters.
1046
01:12:51,035 --> 01:12:53,905
You'd ask her, you know,
"Do you need help?" or "Do you need food?"
1047
01:12:54,204 --> 01:12:56,834
And she would just kind of
yell at you in French.
1048
01:12:57,916 --> 01:12:59,166
(John) How'd you know her?
1049
01:12:59,460 --> 01:13:01,090
Just from seeing her
in the neighbourhood.
1050
01:13:01,378 --> 01:13:03,958
- (John) And you'd sit with her?
- Well, I'd always sit on her bench,
1051
01:13:04,256 --> 01:13:07,926
and she'd sit there, and it took weeks
or months before she'd even speak to me.
1052
01:13:08,218 --> 01:13:10,968
I was there in the alley all the time,
going through the garbage,
1053
01:13:11,263 --> 01:13:14,063
so I had a bunch of old clothes, and
I had a wool hat, one time, I gave her.
1054
01:13:14,350 --> 01:13:17,900
And she took it, she said, "Oh, that's great,
I'll wear that when I sleep."
1055
01:13:18,187 --> 01:13:20,017
She was very short with people.
1056
01:13:20,314 --> 01:13:23,284
She was funny, though.
Nice lady.
1057
01:13:23,567 --> 01:13:26,397
(Woman) When I was riding my bike,
sometimes I'd cross her path.
1058
01:13:26,695 --> 01:13:29,775
And she'd yell to me,
"Get a bell! Get a bell!"
1059
01:13:30,074 --> 01:13:32,744
And sometimes,
I'd be out in the alley in the winter,
1060
01:13:33,035 --> 01:13:37,495
and she'd see me without a hat,
and she'd yell, "Get a hat! Get a hat!"
1061
01:13:37,790 --> 01:13:40,080
- She was about that bell on the bike.
- Yes.
1062
01:13:40,376 --> 01:13:43,166
Well, who would have known
that she was actually a great artist,
1063
01:13:43,462 --> 01:13:44,962
and she'd come to dumpster diving?
1064
01:13:45,255 --> 01:13:47,715
- (Woman) That's the sad...
- I mean, sitting on the park bench,
1065
01:13:48,008 --> 01:13:50,638
literally, she'd go across the street,
she'd get a can of food...
1066
01:13:50,928 --> 01:13:54,138
What did she have one clay?
It was, like, corned beef hash or something.
1067
01:13:54,431 --> 01:13:57,601
I remember, right out of the can,
not even warm it up, with a spoon.
1068
01:13:57,893 --> 01:14:00,403
And said it was delicious. (Laughs)
1069
01:14:03,649 --> 01:14:06,239
(Ginger Tam) She was much
more damaged than I thought.
1070
01:14:08,028 --> 01:14:11,698
And I have a lot more
empathy for her, erm...
1071
01:14:17,329 --> 01:14:20,619
I just think, erm... What a lonely lady.
1072
01:14:22,334 --> 01:14:24,464
You know? Incredibly lonely.
1073
01:14:25,754 --> 01:14:28,384
And misunderstood.
1074
01:14:30,467 --> 01:14:33,297
So... Yeah, I think... I mean,
now, if I were to see her today,
1075
01:14:33,595 --> 01:14:36,515
after this, I wouldn't be
as hard on her, probably.
1076
01:14:41,520 --> 01:14:42,810
(Man)Somebody called me and said,
1077
01:14:43,105 --> 01:14:46,065
"The old lady in the park,
she fell, she kind of passed out.
1078
01:14:46,358 --> 01:14:48,398
"The ambulance is out there,"
1079
01:14:48,694 --> 01:14:51,534
So I went across the street,
and at that point,
1080
01:14:51,822 --> 01:14:54,282
they were loading her
onto the little cart there.
1081
01:14:54,575 --> 01:14:57,575
And she was telling the people,
the paramedics and such,
1082
01:14:57,870 --> 01:15:00,370
that she did not want to go,
she wanted to go home.
1083
01:15:00,664 --> 01:15:03,004
And they said that she has to go with.
1084
01:15:03,292 --> 01:15:05,842
And she looked at me as if to say,
"Can you do something?"
1085
01:15:06,128 --> 01:15:07,708
But, ah, nothing I could do about it.
1086
01:15:08,005 --> 01:15:11,295
I asked the paramedics,
they said, "No, she has to go. "
1087
01:15:15,095 --> 01:15:16,675
And then, but that was it.
1088
01:15:16,972 --> 01:15:19,352
I mean, they put her
in the ambulance and took her away.
1089
01:15:20,434 --> 01:15:22,814
And after the fact, a lot of people
in the neighbourhood said,
1090
01:15:23,103 --> 01:15:25,863
"Whatever happened to the old lady?"
and nobody ever knew.
1091
01:15:51,423 --> 01:15:56,093
You have to try to draw,
from the evidence you have,
1092
01:15:56,386 --> 01:15:58,966
some understanding of the individual.
1093
01:16:00,641 --> 01:16:04,191
I think her pictures show a tenderness,
1094
01:16:04,478 --> 01:16:08,148
instant alertness to human tragedies
1095
01:16:08,398 --> 01:16:12,358
and those moments of generosity
and sweetness.
1096
01:16:13,529 --> 01:16:18,489
I see her as an incredibly watchful,
observant, caring person.
1097
01:16:19,535 --> 01:16:24,285
And probably why she was a nanny
was that she had those capacities.
1098
01:16:26,375 --> 01:16:29,745
(Carole Pohn) In 1962,
when she took a lot of the pictures...
1099
01:16:31,380 --> 01:16:33,670
the kids would always play in the ravines.
1100
01:16:35,092 --> 01:16:37,342
It's the most beautiful spot in the world.
1101
01:16:41,390 --> 01:16:44,690
You know, instead of this straight-edged
suburban community,
1102
01:16:44,935 --> 01:16:48,855
you always went there cos you wanted
the kids to have a little touch of nature.
1103
01:16:49,106 --> 01:16:51,686
You know, wild nature.
1104
01:16:51,942 --> 01:16:55,492
There was a patch of wild strawberries
somewhere in there.
1105
01:16:59,658 --> 01:17:02,998
And I think she liked it so much,
that's why they buried her there.
1106
01:17:05,664 --> 01:17:08,834
It's a place that they remembered
she was happy.
1107
01:17:11,169 --> 01:17:13,629
(Vivian) Now, you tell me
how you can live forever.
1108
01:17:13,880 --> 01:17:16,130
(Child) Uh...
(Vivian) Come on.
1109
01:17:16,383 --> 01:17:19,683
(Joel Meyerowitz )She might have gotten
to the end of her life and thought,
1110
01:17:19,928 --> 01:17:23,888
"Why didn't I try
to get that work out there?"
1111
01:17:24,850 --> 01:17:27,440
Some people's character prevents them
1112
01:17:27,686 --> 01:17:32,766
from pushing that little bit you need
to push to get the work seen.
1113
01:17:33,692 --> 01:17:36,112
You know, she didn't defend herself
as an artist.
1114
01:17:36,361 --> 01:17:38,451
She just did the work.
1115
01:17:39,364 --> 01:17:41,334
A canon is often established.
1116
01:17:41,950 --> 01:17:43,410
And so, when someone comes in,
1117
01:17:43,660 --> 01:17:46,080
there's always the sense
that they're secondary figures.
1118
01:17:46,330 --> 01:17:49,210
But I don't feel her as secondary.
1119
01:17:49,458 --> 01:17:55,088
When I look at the pictures,
I always feel something primary.
1120
01:17:58,300 --> 01:18:02,890
I think that the work is so good
that it's really winning over a lot of people
1121
01:18:03,138 --> 01:18:06,268
who were...
were dismissive of it previously.
1122
01:18:06,516 --> 01:18:08,436
Where it'll wind up, who knows?
1123
01:18:10,145 --> 01:18:12,305
(John) Much of the art world
establishment
1124
01:18:12,564 --> 01:18:14,784
still hasn't accepted
Vivian Maier's work.
1125
01:18:15,025 --> 01:18:19,815
But people don't care. They're not waiting
for that validation from institutions.
1126
01:18:20,072 --> 01:18:23,332
They're claiming Vivian Maier's work
for themselves.
1127
01:18:25,285 --> 01:18:27,285
Her work is now in galleries in New York.
1128
01:18:32,751 --> 01:18:35,551
It can be seen in LA.
1129
01:18:40,842 --> 01:18:42,802
One in particular that I bought,
which I love,
1130
01:18:43,053 --> 01:18:45,223
there's an abject poverty in the frame,
1131
01:18:45,472 --> 01:18:48,272
but there's also a happiness
in spite of it all.
1132
01:18:50,894 --> 01:18:52,904
(John) Her work is being seen
around the world.
1133
01:18:53,146 --> 01:18:56,646
London, Germany, Denmark.
1134
01:18:56,900 --> 01:19:00,320
They're embracing it,
and they're embracing Vivian Maier.
1135
01:19:07,911 --> 01:19:09,621
(Woman) Oui, oui, oui.
1136
01:19:42,446 --> 01:19:44,486
(Woman) Oui, ca c'est sur.
1137
01:19:47,576 --> 01:19:50,076
(Joe Matthews) Maybe
this is the best way of all for her.
1138
01:19:50,328 --> 01:19:53,708
To have it happen after she's died.
1139
01:19:53,957 --> 01:19:55,707
That would probably make Viv happiest.
1140
01:19:55,959 --> 01:20:00,339
Cos in her own life, the attention, I think
she would have found overwhelming.
1141
01:20:02,549 --> 01:20:04,379
Viv was supposed
to be downtrodden, right?
1142
01:20:04,634 --> 01:20:06,304
She was, like, a nanny.
1143
01:20:06,553 --> 01:20:10,353
That's not considered to be a pretty
high-ranking position in life.
1144
01:20:10,599 --> 01:20:12,389
Not married.
1145
01:20:12,642 --> 01:20:14,852
Not any social life to speak of.
1146
01:20:15,771 --> 01:20:20,071
She didn't have
these measures of status
1147
01:20:20,317 --> 01:20:22,357
that people aspire to.
1148
01:20:23,361 --> 01:20:25,741
But she didn't have
to compromise one bit.
1149
01:20:27,115 --> 01:20:28,695
She did what she wanted.
1150
01:20:28,950 --> 01:20:33,290
That's what she taught me, is that
she got the life she wanted. She had it.
1151
01:20:38,126 --> 01:20:40,916
(John) I understand a lot more about her.
1152
01:20:44,257 --> 01:20:50,427
But why was this person so private,
1153
01:20:50,680 --> 01:20:55,230
yet so prolific in an artform
that she never shared?
1154
01:20:56,478 --> 01:20:58,358
Who knows?
1155
01:20:58,605 --> 01:21:00,765
She did it so it wouldn't be forgotten.
1156
01:21:01,024 --> 01:21:03,114
And... and here, it's not forgotten.
1157
01:21:05,195 --> 01:21:06,905
As she was photographing,
1158
01:21:07,155 --> 01:21:11,445
she was seeing just how close
you can come into somebody's space,
1159
01:21:11,701 --> 01:21:13,041
and make a picture of them.
1160
01:21:13,286 --> 01:21:15,536
That tells me a lot about her.
1161
01:21:15,789 --> 01:21:19,539
It tells me that she could go into
a space with a total stranger
1162
01:21:19,793 --> 01:21:22,923
and get them to accommodate her
by being themselves,
1163
01:21:23,630 --> 01:21:27,340
and generate this kind of moment,
1164
01:21:27,592 --> 01:21:32,642
you know, where two presences were
actually kind of vibrating together.
1165
01:21:38,144 --> 01:21:40,314
And then she's gone.
1166
01:21:48,446 --> 01:21:51,026
(Vivian) Well, I suppose
nothing is meant to last forever.
1167
01:21:51,283 --> 01:21:53,993
We have to make room for other people.
It's a wheel.
1168
01:21:54,244 --> 01:21:58,124
You get on, you have to go to the end,
and then somebody else takes your place.
1169
01:21:58,373 --> 01:22:02,003
And now I am going to close
and quickly run next door to do my work.