Fotografiska Tallinn opens exhibition of nanny Vivian Maier's everyday America photos

Fotografiska museum in Tallinn has opened an exhibition dedicated to American photographer Vivian Maier (1926–2009), drawing on works held in the Fotografiska collections in New York and Shanghai.

Maier worked as a nanny and spent her free time photographing the streets of New York and Chicago. She is now regarded as one of the finest street photographers of the past century, though her contribution to photography was only recognized after her death.

From the 1950s to the 1980s

The exhibition traces Maier's work from the early 1950s to the mid-1980s, presenting around 200 pieces: vintage and modern prints, color and black-and-white photographs, Super 8 films and sound recordings, along with contact sheets prepared specifically for the Tallinn show.

A silent witness

Maier belonged to the era's invisible working class during the height of the American dream, and so remained largely a silent observer of the world around her. Deeply private and detached from material concerns, she wandered the city with the children in her care, watching and photographing. In doing so she unknowingly built an extraordinary visual archive of everyday life in postwar America.

A discovery after death

Exhibition curator Anne Morin has described the discovery of Maier's photographs after her death as one of the greatest strokes of luck in the history of photography. In 2007, one of Maier's storage units in Chicago was sold at auction over unpaid debts. Inside was a vast collection of negatives accumulated over her lifetime — a find that would go on to influence the entire world of photography.