Vivian Dorothy Maier February 1 1926 April 21 2009 was an American street photographer whose work was discovered and recognized after her death She took more than 150000 photographs during her lifetime primarily of the people and architecture of Chicago New York City and Los Angeles although she also traveled and photographed around the world During her lifetime Maiers photographs were unknown and unpublished many of her negatives were never developed A Chicago collector John Maloof acquired some of Maiers photos in 2007 while two other Chicagobased collectors Ron Slattery and Randy Prow also found some of Maiers prints and negatives in her boxes and suitcases around the same time Maiers photographs were first published on the Internet in July 2008 by Slattery but the work received little response In October 2009 Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maiers photographs on the imagesharing website Flickr and the results went viral with thousands of people expressing interest Maiers work subsequently attracted critical acclaim and since then Maiers photographs have been exhibited around the world From Wikipedia
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