Almost Lost, Fortunately Found: Vivian Maier

Imagine you buy a box full of old photographs and negatives and it turns out to be a real treasure. That's what happened to John Maloof in Chicago. He acquired about 40.000 negatives and 1.000 rolls of undeveloped films of an unknown photographer at a furniture and antique auction.

He had no idea of street photography when he started to look through the work of–as he finally discovered–a Jewish refugee from wartime France named Vivian Maier. After she had moved to Chicago in the 1950s, she started to create wonderful photographs of the city's streets. So the Maloof Collection opens a window that allows us to have a fascinating look back on urban life in the postwar States, captured through a lense controlled by a very sensitive and gifted eye. Inspired by his discovery Maloof actually picked up photography himself.

As he was curious about the author of this extensive work, Maloof did some research on her. When he googled her this year, he unfortunately found out that he missed her by just a few months. Born in 1926 she passed away on April 21, 2009. Nevertheless he continues to develop and scan the negatives piece by piece and to post the best pictures in a special blog on his collection.
(via StyleSpion)