Angie & Wes!
This fantastic and oh so handsome couple was married February 19th in Portland, OR.
We took a little stroll around the Pearl District for some portraits....
Congrats to the happy couple!
I took my class on a field trip today to see the Vivian Maier exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center today. I'm sure you have heard of her and the amazing story behind the discovery of her work already. If not, here is a little background. This is not my own critique, rather a shortened version of much of the information currently available.
Vivian Maier was born in New York in 1926 to French and Austrian parents and died in 2009. She moved to Chicago in the 1950's and worked as a nanny for several wealthy families. Technically untrained, she had a passion for photography that was kept secret. She was not known to have made any attempts at exhibiting and was basically a loner. As it is known, she had no intentions of an artistic career.
Maier's point of view is often influenced by her choice of camera - in particular her favored square format Rolleiflex. Her approaches seem to digest the history of photography. Her observation of street life is layered with complexity of several private moments and formal sensibility.
My own discovery of her work could not have come at a better time. Contemplating the past direction and future possibilities of my own career in photography I have been aching for the inspiration to go back to where I started. I first began taking pictures while working with children in Israel and after returning to the States was a nanny while I took my first formal photography course. I love the parallels between my life and hers, however that is where it ends. I am entirely formally trained with a degree in commercial advertising photography. As the years have gone on my own passion has diminished and I have almost entirely stopped shooting for myself.
Viewing the work of a photographer who made images solely for the purpose of her passion is awe-inspiring for many reasons and I suggest it for anyone looking to remember the why of getting into this rapidly changing industry.
"We have to make room for other people. It's a wheel - you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else take their place. There's nothing new under the sun." - Vivian Maier
Vivian Maier was born in New York in 1926 to French and Austrian parents and died in 2009. She moved to Chicago in the 1950's and worked as a nanny for several wealthy families. Technically untrained, she had a passion for photography that was kept secret. She was not known to have made any attempts at exhibiting and was basically a loner. As it is known, she had no intentions of an artistic career.
Maier's point of view is often influenced by her choice of camera - in particular her favored square format Rolleiflex. Her approaches seem to digest the history of photography. Her observation of street life is layered with complexity of several private moments and formal sensibility.
My own discovery of her work could not have come at a better time. Contemplating the past direction and future possibilities of my own career in photography I have been aching for the inspiration to go back to where I started. I first began taking pictures while working with children in Israel and after returning to the States was a nanny while I took my first formal photography course. I love the parallels between my life and hers, however that is where it ends. I am entirely formally trained with a degree in commercial advertising photography. As the years have gone on my own passion has diminished and I have almost entirely stopped shooting for myself.
Viewing the work of a photographer who made images solely for the purpose of her passion is awe-inspiring for many reasons and I suggest it for anyone looking to remember the why of getting into this rapidly changing industry.
"We have to make room for other people. It's a wheel - you get on, you go to the end, and someone else has the same opportunity to go to the end, and so on, and somebody else take their place. There's nothing new under the sun." - Vivian Maier
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)