From Booklist
*Starred Review* Excitement over the mysterious “nanny photographer” went viral after a selection of Maier’s commanding black-and-white photographs were displayed online shortly after her death in 2009. Her never-before-seen work was discovered after the contents of her storage lockers were auctioned off because she couldn’t pay the bills. Now the brilliant and intrepid photo reclamation and writing team of Cahan and Williams (The Lost Panoramas, 2011) tell Maier’s deeply moving story. They conferred with everyone they could find who knew Maier and chose 300 galvanizing photographs—most unprinted, many undeveloped—from the tens of thousands she shot. We learn that Maier, of French and Austrian descent, was born in New York City in 1926, raised in the French Alps, traveled the world with her camera, and settled in a Chicago suburb in 1956. She lived frugally while working as a nanny and caregiver, continually taking pictures of her young charges and their world and of Chicago’s see-it-all streets, composing urban tableaus of penetrating wit and empathy. Maier was “painfully private,” outspoken, unconventional, gutsy, and compassionate, and her long-secret photographs evince a profound clarity of vision and intent. Cahan and Williams compare Maier to Emily Dickinson, and her life and work do speak to our most cherished sense of what art is and why it matters. --Donna Seaman
Review
"Vivian Maier: Out of the Shadows,
in my opinion, presents her work in exactly the correct manner" --Kenneth Tanaka, The Online Photographer
“This book is fascinating and a revelation. Not only is it beautiful and compelling and haunting, it is a life in photographs. You will never read a more definitive book about Vivian Maier than Out of the Shadows.” —Rick Kogan
“Now the brilliant and intrepid photo reclamation and writing team of Cahan and Williams tell Maier’s deeply moving story. They conferred with everyone they could find who knew Maier and chose 300 galvanizing photographs—most unprinted, many undeveloped—from the tens of thousands she shot.” —Booklist Starred Review
“Digging through the unprecedented treasure trove of tens of thousands of images taken by Maier, a private street photographer who never shared her work in her lifetime, Cahan and Williams have unearthed a beautiful, haunting collection of a private woman and gifted artist.” —Publishers Weekly
“The thoughtful and, indeed, heartfelt text manages to enrich the experience of looking at her photos and enables us to see this woman not as mere curiosity but as unforgettable artist.” —Chicago Tribune
“(Starred Review) They show that Vivian Maier was a great artist—not simply “the nanny photographer,” as some have called her.” —Library Journal
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