Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE: 1959
WEBSITE: http://vivianmaierproject.com/
CITY:
STATE: IL
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY:
http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/~plbannos/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LC control no.: no2004058285
LCCN Permalink: https://lccn.loc.gov/no2004058285
HEADING: Bannos, Pamela, 1959-
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100 1_ |a Bannos, Pamela, |d 1959-
372 __ |a Photography |2 lcsh
373 __ |a Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) |2 naf
374 __ |a College teachers |a Authors |a Photographers |2 lcsh
375 __ |a Females |2 lcdgt
377 __ |a eng
670 __ |a Pamela Bannos, 2001: |b p. 23 (Pamela Bannos; photographer; b. 1959)
670 __ |a Vivian Maier : a photographer’s life and afterlife, 2017: |b title page (Pamela Bannos) page 4 of jacket (Pamela Bannos is professor of photography in Northwestern University’s department of art theory and practice)
PERSONAL
Born 1959.
EDUCATION:Drake University, B.A., 1981; University of Illinois, Chicago, M.F.A., 1987.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer and photographer. Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, 1993–, became professor of photography. Exhibitions include W.A.R.M. Gallery, Minneapolis, MN; Drake University, Des Moines, IA; Eye Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1984; Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, IL, 1986, 1989; Photographers’ Gallery, London, England, 1992; University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, IN, 1996; Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL, 1997; McIntosh / Panich Gallery, Atlanta, GA, 1999; Three Arts Club, Chicago, IL, 2002; and Chicago City Cemetery and Lincoln Park, IL, 2008–.
AWARDS:Visiting artist, American Academy in Rome, Italy, 1999; finalist, Artadia Awards in the Visual Arts, 2006; honored at Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner, Chicago Public Library Foundation, 2017.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Northwestern University professor of photography Pamela Bannos is the author of the biography Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife, which tells the story of the reclusive woman who won fame after her death for her collection of thousands of photographs and negatives. Two years before she died in 2009, declared a Kirkus Reviews contributor, Maier “failed to make payments on five storage lockers in Chicago, causing the owner to offer its contents—hundreds of boxes—at auction. The boxes contained material from decades of hoarding,” including thousands of photographs and rolls of undeveloped film representing decades of work, mostly on the streets of Chicago. “The book braids together three strands: a brisk, rather generic history of American photography; a biography of Maier; and a withering account of how the artist has been represented since her death,” said Parul Sehgal in the New York Times. “‘My goal was always to recognize and give Maier agency within her own story,’ Bannos writes. She tries to dislodge the portrayal of Maier as a mysterious, freakish figure, and to see a person where others have seen mostly pathology: her hoarding and possible paranoia.” “The book’s strengths,” stated Shauna Frischkorn in Library Journal, “are Bannos’s exhaustive research and her ability to connect the greater history of photography into the account.”
Critics have speculated that Maier’s noted reticence and choice of career may have been due to the circumstances of her early life. “Born in New York in 1926,” explained Donna Seaman in Booklist, “Maier survived a difficult childhood there and in France . . . [and] committed herself to photography.” She chose to work as a nanny for prominent families (including Phil Donahue’s family) for decades and kept her photography secret. “We cannot know for sure what influence Maier’s upbringing had on her photography,” stated Emilie Bickerton in the Los Angeles Review of Books, “and Bannos resists speculating. It seems Maier both followed the path open to her, working as she did as a nanny, and at the same time made a conscious effort to break with her family and origins. She never spoke about her private life and she changed details on her birth certificate and other identification papers, suggesting she was doing her best to live a free life, as much as this was possible to her.”
Maier’s “story … has been told so many times,” Bannos reported in an excerpt from her book that appeared in the Paris Review, “that it can now be reduced to a few short phrases. . . . A young man named John Maloof bought a box of her negatives. He googled her name and found that she had died a few days earlier. He discovered the woman known today as the mysterious nanny street photographer. But rarely is a story as simple as the filtered-down version. . . . Ethical issues have largely been glossed over in favor of a heroic narrative that benefits the people who have been selling her work.” “Bannos’s biography,” wrote a Publishers Weekly reviewer, “is . . . an important challenge to the way in which Maier’s work and legacy have been represented thus far.”
Critics noted that Bannos’s work is as much the story of what happened to Maier’s opus as it is the story of the artist herself. “The secondary story, involving Maloof and the others who took it upon themselves to absorb Maier’s work and distill it through their own agendas, is . . . clearly developed and Bannos pulls no punches,” wrote Christopher John Stephens in Pop Matters. “There’s a sadness cloud that lingers over Vivian Maier and it’s hard to shake off once finished. Bannos has written a careful, touching, delicate biography that escorts Maier out of the shadows and into the light without risking overexposure. It’s the work that matters, in the end, and Maier’s collection should continue to challenge, intrigue, and register as an important testament to understanding the omnipresent thin line in photography between observation and intrusion.” “In many ways, Maier and the various ways she has been understood, from the ‘mystery nanny’ to the ‘street photographer,’ is a construction and reflection of our time and much less of her own,” Bickerton concluded. “This is what makes Bannos’s biography so welcome. For the most part she lets Maier emerge simply from what she did—her travels, her photos, her actions. Only in her closing remarks does Bannos give us the swiftest brush strokes of a portrait, which is worth remembering for it is one of the most lucid and accurate summations of Maier’s work to date.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2017, Donna Seaman, review of Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife, p. 20.
Kirkus Reviews, August 1, 2017, review of Vivian Maier.
Library Journal, September 15, 2017, Shauna Frischkorn, review of Vivian Maier, p. 72.
New York Times, October 31, 2017, Parul Sehgal, “Vivian Maier, through a Clearer Lens.”
Paris Review, November 20, 2017, Pamela Bannos, “The Life and Afterlife of Vivian Maier.”
Publishers Weekly, September 11, 2017, review of Vivian Maier, p. 59.
ONLINE
Los Angeles Review of Books, https://lareviewofbooks.org/ (November 23, 2017), Emilie Bickerton, “A Light on Vivian Maier.”
Northwestern University, http://faculty.wcas.northwestern.edu/ (May 16, 2018), author profile.
Pop Matters, https://www.popmatters.com/ (January 16, 2018), Christopher John Stephens, “Was Vivian Maier’s Work about Getting a Life or Recording Life?”
Vivian Maier Project, http://vivianmaierproject.com (May 16. 2018), author profile.
Pamela Bannos is an artist and researcher who utilizes methods that highlight the forgotten and overlooked, exploring the links between visual representation, urban space, history, and collective memory. She has exhibited her work nationally and internationally, including in solo exhibitions at the Photographers' Gallery in London, England, and the Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York. Her research projects include an investigation of Chicago's Lincoln Park and the grounds of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Bannos has taught photography in Northwestern University's Department of Art Theory and Practice since 1993.
P A M E L A B A N N O S
Associate Professor of Instruction, Department of Art Theory and Practice, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
EDUCATION
1987: Master of Fine Arts, Photography, University of Illinois at Chicago
1981: Bachelor of Arts, Psychology and Sociology, Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
PUBLICATION
Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife, University of Chicago Press, October 2017; paperback will be issued in September 2018.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS
2018: Artist talk, New York Film Academy, New York, NY
Author talk, National Arts Club, New York, NY
Author talk with Vivian Maier collector Ron Slattery, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL
Author talk, Evanston History Center, Evanston, IL
Author talk, Wilmette Historical Museum, Wilmette, IL
Artist talk, Fifteen Landscapes, Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL
2017: Author talk, University Club of Chicago
Author talk, BookIT IP Series, Chicago-Kent College of Law, Chicago, IL
Visiting Artist and Artist Talk, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL
The Hidden Truths of Lincoln Park, Lake Forest College, Lake Forest, IL
The Dark Side of History, two on-site Lincoln Park presentations for the Chicago History Museum.
2016: Artist Talk, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Research Studio class.
Artist Talk, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Large Format Photography class.
Garden of the Dead: The History of Lincoln Parks Elusive Graves, Chicago24, Chicago History Museum's 24-hours of Chicago tours.
The Dark Side of History, on-site Lincoln Park presentation for the Chicago History Museum.
2015: Finding Vivian Maier - US and China Experts Forum, key presenter, Shandong University of Art and Design, Jinan, China.
Ceci n'est pas un snapshot: Vivian Maier's vintage work, presentation, The Vernacular Photography Festival, Comfort Station, Chicago.
Curious City Comes to Lincoln Park, panelist, DePaul University, Lincoln Park Community Research Initiative Spring Program.
Garden of the Dead: The History of Lincoln Parks Elusive Graves, Chicago24, Chicago History Museum's 24-hours of Chicago tours.
The Dark Side of History, on-site Lincoln Park presentation for the Chicago History Museum.
2014: Vivian Maier's Fractured Archive, presentation at Lawrence University's Wriston Art Center, Appleton, Wisconsin.
Garden of the Dead: The History of Lincoln Parks Elusive Graves, Chicago24, Chicago History Museum's 24-hours of Chicago tours.
The Dark Side of History, on-site Lincoln Park presentation for the Chicago History Museum.
The Hidden Truths of Lincoln Park, on-site presentation, programming for Loyola University Museum of Art exhibition Elegant Enigmas: the Art of Edward Gorey
Shifting Grounds: The History of the MCA, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Shifting Grounds: The Armory Years, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
2013: Shifting Grounds:1836 through the Chicago Fire, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Shifting Grounds: Cap Streeter & The Development of Streeterville, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago
Vivian Maier presentation with BBC documentary film director Jill Nicholls, The Photographers' Gallery, London England
Vivian Maier's Fractured Archive, University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, England
Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny's Pictures?, October & December screenings of 70 min. BBC film at Northwestern University's Block Cinema, Introduction and Q&A.
Vivian Maier's Fractured Archive: A Woman's Story, Brandeis University, Women's Studies Research Center, Waltham, Massachusetts
Vivian Maier's Fractured Archive, The Arts Club of Chicago
The Reinvention of Vivian Maier, Chicago History Museum
Theoretical Archaeological Group (TAG) USA-Chicago 2013, Plenary speaker, Hidden Truths, University of Chicago
TAG Roundtable discussion: The Way of the Shovel: On the Archaeological Imaginary in Art, University of Chicago
2012: Panel Moderator: Printing and Developing Vivian Maier's Negatives, Thomas Masters Gallery, Chicago
Garden of the Dead: The History of Lincoln Park's Elusive Graves, First part of a two-part presentation, Chicago History Museum
Unfolding Tales: The Lingering Legacy of the Chicago City Cemetery, Second part of a two-part presentation, Chicago History Museum
Imagining Space, Barrington/Northwest Community Associates of The Art Institute of Chicago
2010: Hidden Truths, Lincoln Park, and how there’s always more than meets the eye. “The Dil Pickel Club Presents: Matters of Life and Death”, The Op Shop, Chicago.
Hidden Truths, Presentation and Tour, Chicago Genealogical Society, Newberry Library
2009: Eric R. Multhauf Lecture, Chicago Architecture Foundation, Chicago.
2008: Lincoln Park Community Research Initiative Fall Program, public presentation, DePaul University, Chicago.
2004: Speaker and Panelist, American Urban Photography Symposium, Northwestern University, Block Museum of Art
2002: Speaker and Panelist,Art, Science and Technology, The Art Institute of Chicago
When One Thing Becomes Another, New Trier High School, Wilmette, Illinois
2001: Imagining Space , Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
2000: Artist Talk, University of Minnesota, Duluth
1999: Time and Chance Reveal All Secrets, presentation, American Academy in Rome, Italy
Artist Talk, Atlanta College of Art, Georgia
1997: Lecture and workshop, Gum Bichromate, Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University
WEB-BASED PROJECTS
2014: Shifting Grounds: Block 21 and Chicago's MCA
2008: Hidden Truths: The Chicago City Cemetery and Lincoln Park
2004: 8th Avenue at 14th Street
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008 - ongoing: Hidden Truths:The Chicago City Cemetery and Lincoln Park - a site-specific installation in Lincoln Park
2003: Amnesia, Edwynn Houk Gallery, New York, New York
2002: Temporary Quarters: A Site-Specific Installation, The Three Arts Club, Chicago, Illinois
1999: McIntosh / Panich Gallery, Atlanta, Georgia
1997: Tarble Arts Center, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston
1996: University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana
1992: The Photographers' Gallery, London, England
1989: Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1986: Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, Illinois
1984: Eye Gallery, San Francisco, California
W.A.R.M. Gallery, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa
COLLABORATIVE EXHIBITION
2001: Imaging and Imagining Space: A Collaboration Between Art and Science,
Block Museum of Art, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
(with Farhad Zadeh, Professor of Astronomy and Physics)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2017: Objectifying the Photograph, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, Dekalb
Bending the Truth, Perspective Gallery, Evanston, Illinois
2014: The Way Of The Shovel: Art as Archaeology, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago
86th Exhibition of Professional Members, The Arts Club of Chicago
2013: Light And The Unseen, Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago
twohundredfiftysixcolors, curatorial film of animated GIFs, screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago
2011: This Is Paul Halupka, C33 Gallery, Chicago
2009: MaxMultiple, Dan Devening Projects + Editions, Chicago
2006: Re- , Gage Gallery, Roosevelt University, Chicago
Wherever, Dan Devening Projects, various venues
2003: Women in Science (Genomically Yours), Universal Concepts Unlimited, New York
2001: photo.soho, Exit Art, New York
2000: Figure This, Zolla Lieberman Gallery, Chicago
1999: Containers of Memory, Detroit Artists' Market, Michigan
photo.soho, 102 Prince St., New York
1998: Chicago Artists '98, Gallery 312, Chicago
Celebrating Ten Years, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
1997: Six Chicago Artists, Palazzo Massari, Ferrara, Italy
The Power of Words and Signs, Index Gallery, Osaka, Japan
The Power of Words and Signs, Casa Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
Animal Instincts, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
photo.soho, 102 Prince St., New York
Re/Collections: Non-traditional Photographic Works, Northern Illinois University Art Museum, DeKalb
The Camera Obscured, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
1996: Illinois Photographers in the 90's, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
Pamela Bannos and Kellie Murphy Klein, Clement Gallery, University of Toledo, Ohio
The Camera Obscured, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
1995: Collections in Focus: Photography, Tweed Museum, Univ. of Minnesota, Duluth
25th Annual Works on Paper, Southwest Texas State University, San Marcos
1994: Exquisite Corpse, Transmission Gallery, Glasgow, Scotland
The Regional Artists' Biennial, Fort Wayne Art Museum, Indiana
1993: Selections 6, Prague, Czech Republic
Selections 6, Birmingham, England
Gallery Artists 1993, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
1992: Selections 6, Photokina '92, Cologne, England
1991: Chicago for Chicago Invitational, World Tattoo Gallery, Chicago
Collected Memory, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
1990: Photography: Inventions and Innovations, Junior Museum, Art Institute of Chicago
Evidence, Artemisia Gallery, Chicago
Ginny Williams Gallery, Denver, Colorado
The Chicago Show, Chicago Cultural Center
1989: Choices, Catherine Edelman Gallery, Chicago
Connections, New Works Gallery, University of Illinois at Chicago
1987: Alternatives, Ohio University School of Art, Athens
1985: Midwestern Contemporary Photography, Rockford College, Rockford, Illinois
(Also exhibited at the Illinois State Museum, Springfield)
Spirited Images, Beacon Street Gallery, Chicago
1984: New Photographics/84, Central Washington University, Ellensburg
18th Joslyn Biennial, Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska
Light Sensitive V, Thomas Center Galleries, Gainesville, Florida
1983: Upper Midwest Photography Invitational, Tweed Museum of Art, Duluth, Minnesota
Photo/Flow, University of Texas, Arlington
Messages from Earth..., Houston Center for Photography, Texas
35th Iowa Artists Exhibition, Des Moines Art Center, Iowa
Light Factory, Charlotte, North Carolina
Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island
8th Annual Magic Silver Show, Murray State University, Kentucky
The Octagon Center for the Arts, Ames, Iowa
GRANTS, AWARDS and HONORS
2018: Amazon Editors' Pick: Best Art and Photography Books of 2017
2017: Honored Guest, Carl Sandburg Literary Awards Dinner, Chicago Public Library Foundation
2010-12: Associated Student Government, Faculty Honor Roll, Northwestern University
2009-11: Midwest Photographers Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
2008: Faculty Research Grant, Northwestern University
2007-09: Midwest Photographers Project, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
2007: Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts Grant, Northwestern University
2006: Finalist, Artadia Awards in the Visual Arts, Chicago
2004: Faculty Research Grant, Northwestern University
2002: Faculty Research Grant, Northwestern University
2000: Center for Interdisciplinary Research in the Arts Grant, Northwestern University
1999: Visiting Artist, American Academy in Rome, Italy
1997: Faculty Research Grant, Northwestern University
1995: Arts Midwest / NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship in Photography
1992: Exhibitors Grant, The Photographers' Gallery, London
1990: Polaroid Corporation Material Grant
The Chicago Show, Pauline Palmer Prize
1989: Polaroid Corporation Materials Grant
1985: Illinois Photographers '85, purchase award, Illinois State Museum
1984: Jerome Foundation Grant
TELEVISION APPEARANCES
2017: WTTW, Chicago Public Television, Chicago Tonight, in-studio interview about Vivian Maier with Phil Ponce.
2015: WCIU Chicago, “Did U Know: Lincoln Park Cemeteries.”
WCIU Chicago, “Vincent Genna: Lincoln Park Cemeteries.”
2014: WGN news, on-site-interview in Lincoln Park.
2013: BBC1, British Broadcasting Company, Imagine series, "Vivian Maier: Who Took Nanny's Pictures?"
WFLD Fox news, Skype interview regarding bones found in a Chicago neighborhood.
2012: WTTW, Chicago Public Television, Chicago Tonight, “Searching for Vivian Maier.”
WTTW, Chicago Public Television, Chicago Tonight, “The Meteoric Rise of Vivian Maier.”
2008: CAN-TV, one-hour broadcast of presentation at DePaul University.
WFLD Fox TV, Good Day Chicago, live in-studio interview.
ABC7 news, on-site interview in Lincoln Park.
CBS2 news, on-site interview in Lincoln Park.
WFLD Fox news, on-site interview in Lincoln Park.
CLTV news, on-site interview in Lincoln Park.
CBS2 news, various sites, pre-filmed interview.
RADIO APPEARANCES and PODCASTS:
2018: The Seminary Co-op: Open Stacks | #42 Art & Time: Pamela Bannos, Laura Letinsky, & John Muse.
WCBN-FM, Ann Arbor, Living Writers: Freeform conversations with writers, hosted by T. Hetzel.
2017: Natonal Public Radio, Los Angeles affiliate, KPCC, AirTalk, radio guest with John Rabe.
Public Intellectual, "Vivian Maier and The Woman Genius Problem." Forty minute interview with Jessa Crispin.
WGN, The John Williams Show, "Vivian Maier." Ten-minute in-studio interview.
2015: Rivet Radio,"Who owns late photographer Vivian Maier's work?" Fifteen minute pre-recorded interview with Steve Grzanich.
WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio and podcast, Curious City, "In Chicago, Eternal Rest Ain't Eternal."
2008: WGN, Weekends with Dan Deibert, one-hour live radio show guest.
WBEZ, Chicago Public Radio, Eight Forty-Eight program. Ten minute pre-recorded interview, Kristin Moo.
WGN, The Sunday Papers with Rick Kogan, one-hour live radio show guest.
WBBM newsradio, “Hourly report: Top Stories” two recorded one-minute interviews, Regine Schlesinger.
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Print Marked Items
Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and
Afterlife
Donna Seaman
Booklist.
114.4 (Oct. 15, 2017): p20.
COPYRIGHT 2017 American Library Association
http://www.ala.org/aboutala/offices/publishing/booklist/
Full Text:
* Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife. By Pamela Bannos. Oct. 2017. 352p. illus. Univ. of
Chicago, $35 (9780226470757); e-book, $21 (9780226470894). 770.92.
The story of the so-called "nanny photographer" made Vivian Maier an international sensation, but as
Bannos, an associate arts professor at Northwestern University, observes in this assiduously researched and
riveting biography, the glossy books and documentary film that first recounted Maier's life and showcased
her photographs were primarily created by the men who purchased the vast archives found in her Chicago
storage units in 2007 after she stopped paying the bills and realized they had acquired potentially lucrative
treasures. Bannos tacks between fully chronicling Maier's fiercely independent and creatively intrepid life
and thoroughly investigating the sale of her photographs and the questions raised about who has the right to
profit from them. Bannos poignantly reveals the struggles of Maier's grandmother Eugenie, who left her
remote French village for New York after having her daughter, Maria, out of wedlock, then thrived as a livein
cook, to Maria's work as a maid and her disastrous marriage. Born in New York in 1926, Maier survived
a difficult childhood there and in France (where her heirs were eventually located), committed herself to
photography, and took up domestic work to support herself and her art. Taking measure of the barriers
women face, Bannos portrays Maier as nothing less than a consummate, prolific, world-traveling,
uncompromising, and fearless artist.--Donna Seaman
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
Seaman, Donna. "Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife." Booklist, 15 Oct. 2017, p. 20.
General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A512776085/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=f07732b2. Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A512776085
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Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and
Afterlife
Publishers Weekly.
264.37 (Sept. 11, 2017): p59.
COPYRIGHT 2017 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife
Pamela Bannos. Univ. of Chicago, $35 (352p)
ISBN 978-0-226-47075-7
Bannos, a professor at Northwestern University, constructs a meticulously researched counternarrative to
the public depiction of photographer Vivian Maier (1926--2009) as a reclusive Chicago nanny who
moonlighted as a street photographer. Bannos argues that Maier's work has been overshadowed by the
unconventional backstory of how her photographs first came to prominence. In 2007, a real estate agent
named John Maloof bought a large box of Maier's negatives from the storage facility that 81-year-old Maier
could no longer afford to rent. Maier's work gained traction online after Maloof uploaded scans to Flickr,
leading to a "Maier industrial complex." In the span of four years, Maier's photographs were published in
five photo books, exhibited in galleries in Los Angeles and New York City, and were the subject of an
Academy Award-nominated documentary. The book follows Maier, who died in 2009, from her nomadic
and tense early family life to her early photography in France to her Rolleiflex work on the streets of New
York and her secretive life photographing the streets of Chicago. Bannos's biography is a vital contribution
to understanding the historical relevance of Maier's work and an important challenge to the way in which
Maier's work and legacy have been represented thus far. 30 halftones. (Oct.)
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife." Publishers Weekly, 11 Sept. 2017, p. 59. General
OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A505634947/ITOF?
u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=831b5278. Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A505634947
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Bannos, Pamela: VIVIAN MAIER
Kirkus Reviews.
(Aug. 1, 2017):
COPYRIGHT 2017 Kirkus Media LLC
http://www.kirkusreviews.com/
Full Text:
Bannos, Pamela VIVIAN MAIER Univ. of Chicago (Adult Nonfiction) $35.00 10, 6 ISBN: 978-0-226-
47075-7
Biography of a secretive photographer who became legendary after her death.In 2007, Vivian Maier (1926-
2009) failed to make payments on five storage lockers in Chicago, causing the owner to offer its contents--
hundreds of boxes--at auction. The boxes contained material from decades of hoarding: books, magazines,
newspapers, and, most astonishingly, photographs--albums, prints, negatives, color slides, and more than
1,000 rolls of undeveloped film. By the time Maier died two years later, two of the buyers, Jeffrey Goldstein
and real estate businessman John Maloof, already had initiated what was to become a lucrative "Vivian
Maier Industrial Complex," selling, exhibiting, and promoting Maier's photographs and turning her into a
celebrity. In her debut biography, Bannos (Art Theory and Practice/Northwestern Univ.) offers a cleareyed
investigation of Maier's life, aiming to penetrate the myths surrounding her and to assess her stature as an
artist. In a website, several monographs, and a movie, Maloof significantly shaped the myth of Maier as "a
mysterious French nanny who was also, secretly, a photographer." Although Maloof did not cooperate with
Bannos in her research, the thousands of images he published on his website supplemented more than
20,000 images from other collections, which Bannos attentively analyzed. Maier did earn a living as a
nanny in New York and Chicago, but her work as a photographer dominated her life. Even when she had
children in her care, she hung a camera around her neck and engaged in "purposeful" sightseeing in the U.S.
and abroad. She refused to exhibit her photographs, though, and she "selectively, sometimes imaginatively,
addressed any questions about her past." Families who employed her found her eccentric, demanding,
opinionated and, as she aged, paranoid. In alternating chapters, Bannos juxtaposes Maier's biography with
her afterlife. She effectively contextualizes Maier's aesthetics within the history of photography, and she
makes a persuasive case for her talent and originality. In the end, though, the author is left with unanswered
questions about Maier's personal life, her motivations to photograph, and her artistic aims. A sympathetic
portrait of an artist who remains elusive.
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
"Bannos, Pamela: VIVIAN MAIER." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Aug. 2017. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A499572600/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=64c323c3.
Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A499572600
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Arts & humanities
Library Journal.
142.15 (Sept. 15, 2017): p72+.
COPYRIGHT 2017 Library Journals, LLC. A wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No
redistribution permitted.
http://www.libraryjournal.com/
Full Text:
FINE ARTS
Bannos, Pamela. Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife. Univ. of Chicago. Oct. 2017. 352p.
photos, notes, index. ISBN 9780226470757. $35. PHOTOG
Vivian Maier (1926-2009) was a prolific, skillful photographer who took thousands of photographs during
her lifetime. Her work was not discovered until after her death, when the contents of her storage units--
including hundreds of thousands of negatives--were sold at auction. Since then, her images have been
widely disseminated through social media, exhibitions, books, even a full-length, award-winning
documentary film, Finding Vivian Maier (2013). Because Maier chose not to show her photographs during
her lifetime and left no heirs, her story and estate have been tangled in mystery and controversy. Presently,
several men have claim to her images and have profited by not only selling her photos but also perpetuating
the Maier "myth." By carefully analyzing the artist's images, Bannos (photography, Northwestern Univ.)
skillfully tracks her entire adult life: work history, where she lived and traveled, and her interests, and is
able to look past the mystique of the "eccentric nanny with a camera" to tell the true Maier story. The
number of photographs here is limited to 30, but the book's strengths are Bannos's exhaustive research and
her ability to connect the greater history of photography into the account of Maier's curious life. VERDICT
This extraordinary work is recommended for all art history and photography enthusiasts.--Shauna
Frischkorn, Millersville Univ., PA
[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]
*Gordon, Meryl. Bunny Mellon: The Life of an American Style Legend. Grand Central. Sept. 2017. 528p.
illus. bibliog. index. ISBN 9781455588749. $28; ebk. ISBN 9781455588732. BIOG
From her birth into the Lambert pharmaceutical family through her second marriage to billionaire Paul
Mellon, Bunny Mellon's life was one of privilege. Her friends and associates comprised a who's who of
politicians, dignitaries, financiers, and socialites, while Mellon herself drew recognition as an art collector,
philanthropist, style innovator, and, particularly, landscape designer (one of her renowned accomplishments
was designing the White House Rose Garden at the request of close friend and former first lady Jacqueline
Kennedy). Gordon (Mrs. Astor Regrets; The Phantom of Fifth Avenue) captures the multiple components of
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this memorable woman's life, skillfully setting the stage with absorbing details about the family, cultural,
and historical elements that helped shape Mellon's world, engagingly sharing the many facets of her 103
years and event-filled journey. The essence of Mellon's personality--independent and deeply enigmatic--
shines throughout. The exhaustive and original research, drawn from journals, letters, personal interviews,
and previous conversations with Mellon, is smoothly integrated into this admirable work. More than a
biography, this title also reflects the people, places, trends, and events of the 20th century and beyond.
VERDICT This well-written work transcends one woman's story to present keen insights into the complex
fabric of American culture and history. It should appeal to a broad audience.--Carol J. Binkowski,
Bloomfield, NJ
Murphy, Cullen. Cartoon County: My Father and His Friends in the Golden Age of Make-Believe. Farrar.
Nov. 2017. 272p. illus. notes, index. ISBN 9780374298555. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780374713041. BIOG
Murphy (The World According to Eve) recalls the heyday of comic strips in a tribute to his father, John
Cullen Murphy, as well as other illustrators who lived in the Fairfield County, CT, area during the 1950s and
1960s. Trained by Norman Rockwell, John was among a group of artists who created strips like his own
"Prince Valiant," Mort Walker's "Beetle Bailey," and Leonard Starr's "Little Orphan Annie." These comics,
some enduring today, populated the pages of daily newspapers and magazines such as The New Yorker and
the Saturday Evening Post. The author details how this group, known as the Connecticut School, flourished
in suburbs outside of New York, selling their creations to large syndicates that distributed and licensed their
work to publications around the country and throughout the world. VERDICT Amply illustrated with
examples of work from John Murphy and other artists, this heartfelt look back at this still-beloved Sunday
morning staple will be appreciated by readers nostalgic for the comic strips of their youth and for fans of
contemporary graphic media. [See Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]--Donna Marie Smith, Palm Beach Cty. Lib.
Syst., FL
Rogers, Fiona & Max Houghton. Firecrackers: Female Photographers Now. Thames & Hudson. Sept. 2017.
240p. photos, notes. ISBN 9780500544747. $45. PHOTOG
In 2011, Rogers (global development business manager, Magnum Photos) started the website Firecracker
(firecracker.org) to showcase and support women photographers. A year later, a Firecracker annual grant
was established to help fund the projects of female photographers. With coeditor and journalist Houghton,
this book is a result of Rogers's work, which brings readers' attention to more than 30 practicing female
photographers, each critically examining an aspect of contemporary culture through the camera lens. Issues
addressed include conflict (Poulomi Basu, Anastasia Taylor-Lind), politics (Laura El-Tantawy, Newsha
Tavakolian), gender and sexuality (Zanele Muholi, Lua Ribeira), the body (Haley Morris-Cafiero, Sanne De
Wilde), and the deeply personal (Mariela Sancari, Chen Zhe). Many of the women have won major awards
(Evgenia Arbugaeva, Corinna Kern), and many blur the boundaries of documentary and fine art
photography (Bieke Depoorter, Regine Petersen). Each photographer gets a brief biography and an analysis
of the included work, with at least five color images. VERDICT This is an excellent introduction to current
trendsetters and change makers in photography. Anyone interested in the form, women's and gender studies,
or contemporary art from a global perspective will appreciate learning more about the artists included in this
volume.--Shannon Marie Robinson, Drexel Univ. Libs., Philadelphia
Zelevansky, Lynne & others. Helio Oiticica: To Organize Delirium. Prestel. Oct. 2017. 320p. illus. notes,
index. ISBN 9783791355221. $75. FINE ARTS
Oiticica (1937-80), a founding father of installation art from Rio, is unfairly obscure outside his native
Brazil. This book accompanies a successful exhibition of an artist who'd rejected museum venues, instead
making art requiring big outdoor spaces, the participation of passersby, and an openness to ambiguity. The
saying, "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture, compares to writing about Oiticica." His
installations, photos, and films are at once visceral, heady, and crude. During the last decade of his life they
were fueled by, and sometimes even included, lines of cocaine--a delirium resistant to being organized.
Over a dozen scholars take stabs at describing his life and art from a variety of angles, inadvertently
demonstrating the inadequacy of the printed page as a means to appreciating him. The essays are often
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unavoidably recondite, and the illustrations too few to convey the works' three-dimensional interactivity.
We are given good windows into his intriguing early 2D images, the Tropicalismo movement he helped
found, and the disadvantages he faced as an outsider in Warholera New York. Nowadays immersive art
pieces that aren't complete until one enters them are commonplace: Oiticica arguably made possible Ai
Weiwei and Anne Hamilton. Although flawed like its subject, the retrospective (and this catalog) rescues a
progenitor of this medium from oblivion. VERDICT A necessary revival of an overshadowed, mysterious
pioneer.--Douglas F. Smith, Oakland P.L.
LITERATURE
Etulain, Richard W. Ernest Haycox and the Western. Univ. of Oklahoma. Sept. 2017. 200p. photos, notes,
bibliog. index. ISBN 9780806157306. $29.95. LIT
Ernest Haycox (1899-1950) was an infill ential writer of historical Western fiction from Oregon whose goal
was to master the techniques of the genre. Haycock wrote hundreds of novels, short stories, and novellas
from the 1920s to 1950. His story "Stage to Lordsburg" became the basis for the film Stagecoach (1939),
directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne. Etulain's (history emeritus, Univ. of New Mexico; Telling
Western Stories: From Buffalo Bill to Larry McMurtry) slim study of the author is packed with plot
summaries and details on Haycox's views of himself as a craftsman who built his stories step by step,
providing what he called "good entertainment." Etulain demonstrates how, once satisfied with plot, Haycox
developed his abilities to create characters who faced external conflict. VERDICT Etulain, whose career has
focused on the history and culture of the American West, provides a readable, thoughtful study of a prolific
writer in a genre that may be wrongly identified as lowbrow work, showing the tenacity needed by creators
across every field to stay true to their craft.--Joyce Sparrow, Kenneth City, FL
*Galeano, Eduardo. Hunter of Stories. Nation. Nov. 2017. 272p. tr. from Spanish by Mark Fried. ISBN
9781568589909. $26; ebk. ISBN 9781568589916. LIT
Galeano (1940-2015) was a Uruguayan literary colossus and leftist intellectual, ranking with novelists
Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Mario Vargas Llosa. But he won no Nobel Prize in Literature--perhaps because
he wrote kaleidoscopic histories rather than grand novels, or perhaps because he never took himself
seriously. Galeano loved people and excoriated civilization. His trenchant social critique and playful style
suffuse these posthumously published vignettes: some deeply personal, many fiercely political, others
simply wise and penetrating, and nearly all humorous, whether satirical or self-mocking. He is outraged and
empathetic for the wretched of the Earth, whose sufferings--and resistance--he recounts, endowing them
with dignity. Galeano is famous for lyrical treatments of history (Open Veins of Latin America), soccer
(Soccer in Sun and Shadow), and the human experience generally (Mirrors), and this book is no exception.
The prose is profoundly clear and few chapters run beyond a page in length. Hemingwayesque in brevity,
the vignettes are powerful enough to elicit tears and laughter. VERDICT A swan song from one of Latin
America's greatest storytellers, this work is rich with social conscience, humor, insight, outrage, and love.
Recommended to all.--Michael Rodriguez, Univ. of Connecticut
*Grobe, Christopher. The Art of Confession: The Performance of Self from Robert Lowell to Reality TV.
New York Univ. Nov. 2017. 320p. photos, notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9781479829170. $89; pap. ISBN
9781479882083. $30; ebk. ISBN 9781479839599. LIT
In this work, Grobe (English, Amherst Coll.) explores "the performance of self" in as multifarious a fashion
as befits the topic and with just the right balance of theoretical acumen, playfulness, tongue-in-cheek
observations, and historical, literary, political, and cultural accuracy to appeal to readers interested in
various facets of cultural studies. He successfully deploys concepts such as Judith Butler's theories of
performativity in ways that lend a proportioned level of complexity to cultural artifacts that vex easy
distinctions between body and art--the physical and the aesthetic object. His observations about poet Anne
Sexton and feminist conscious raising present a new way to approach gendered performances of self, and
some of his questions about our enduring fascination with producing and participating in autobiographical
performances apply as much to early modern productions as they can and do to reality television.
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VERDICT Recommended for university collections with strong cultural studies programs and readers
interested in the intersections between so-called "high culture" and popular media.--Emily Bowles, Univ. of
Wisconsin Coll. and Extension, Madison
Jensen, Morten Hoi. A Difficult Death: The Life and Work of Jens Peter Jacobsen. Yale Univ. Sept. 2017.
272p. photos, notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9780300218930. $30. LIT
During his lifetime, Danish writer Jens Peter Jacobsen (1847-85) was admired by the likes of Henrik Ibsen,
Knut Hamsun, and August Strindberg. However, unlike his Scandinavian contemporaries he remains largely
unknown and unread in America--something writer Jensen hopes to change with this new biography.
Jacobsen died at 38 of tuberculosis, having written two novels and a handful of short stories. This book
follows his brief life and career while placing it in context of the literary and political landscape of late-19th
century Denmark. In addition to writing novels and short stories, Jacobsen was a botanist, an avowed
atheist, and Danish translator of Charles Darwin. For him, atheism was work, not merely a static rejection
of God or religion but an existential position that he wrestled with both in his fiction and everyday life--
setting him apart both from the dominant Christian culture in Denmark and the more polemic atheist
intellectuals with whom he was surrounded. VERDICT With admiration and pith, Jensen relates the
importance and influence of Jacobsen as a great writer. Recommended to readers of 19th-century literature
and those with an interest in literary and cultural history.--Timothy Berge, SUNY Oswego Lib.
* Light the Dark: Writers on Creativity, Inspiration, and the Artistic Process. Penguin. Sept. 2017. 352p. ed.
by Joe Fassler. ISBN 9780143130840. pap. $17; ebk. ISBN 9781524704643. LIT
In this collection of 46 essays from the Atlantic's "By Heart" series, writer Fassler (Night Music) brings
together thoughts on reading, writing, and the experience of the written word by some of today's most
recognizable authors. It would be easy to say that Fassler presents a string of musings on words that stir the
soul, but these essays consider more than the power of literature to inspire; they speak to the power of
words on family, lived experience, personal mantras, ideals, perception, etc. While the title suggests that the
collection is concerned with creativity and the artistic process, it would be a mistake to assume that this is a
treatise on the daily habits of writers, or even on the art of composition. Those curious to learn what makes
their favorites author tick will find plenty here to engage their interest, but this is not a writer's guide.
VERDICT Bibliophiles and writers alike will embrace the narratives and literary references, which offer
much in the way of inspiration. It will be particularly useful for book clubs or discussion groups.--Gricel
Dominguez, Florida International Univ. Lib.
*O'Hagan, Andrew. The Secret Life: Three True Stories of the Digital Age. Farrar. Oct. 2017. 240p. ISBN
9780374277918. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780374717094. LIT
London Review of Books (LRB) editor at large and Man Booker Prize--nominated novelist O'Hagan (The
Illuminations) is an expert in the art of the long-form essay. In this lightly updated collection of three pieces
originally published in the LRB, the author provides a compelling examination of selfhood and identity for
three distinct personalities wrought in the blurring lines of fact and fiction online. The strongest is
"Ghosting," about O'Hagan's attempt to ghostwrite Julian Assange's autobiography in 2011, with O'Hagan
displaying a knack for capturing moments of levity despite his frustration as Assange causes the project's
derailment. In "The Invention of Ronald Pinn," O'Hagan journeys to the Dark Web to develop an identity
for the titular Pinn, who died pre-Internet and has no digital footprint, raising important, difficult questions
of the ethics involved in telling someone else's story. The final piece, "The Satoshi Affair," offers a thrilling
dive into the fraught world of Craig Wright, who claims to be the mysterious bitcoin creator Satoshi
Nakamoto but won't reveal the evidence to prove it. VERDICT A thought-provoking, eminently readable
sui generis examination of selfhood from a master storyteller; highly recommended for all collections. [See
Prepub Alert, 5/3/17; "Editors' Fall Picks," 9/1/17.]--Amanda Mastrull, Library Journal
Swift, Daniel. The Bughouse: The Poetry, Politics, and Madness of Ezra Pound. Farrar. Nov. 2017. 320p.
photos, index. ISBN 9780374284046. $27; ebk. ISBN 9780374709587. LIT
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Swift (English, New Coll. of the Humanities, UK; Bomber County) calls writer Ezra Pound (1885-1972)
"the most difficult man of the 20th century," documenting how he was a mass of contradictions, during the
debate about his alleged madness which, Swift concludes, will always remain an open-ended question. The
author presents Pound's life during his years of confinement at Washington's St. Elizabeths hospital for the
insane (1945-58) from the perspective of those who interacted with him there. Arrested and indicted for
treason for his pro-fascist radio broadcasts in Italy during World War II, the poet was hospitalized to avoid
trial and possible execution. While at St. Elizabeths, he was visited by literary greats as well as "disciples"
for whom he held court. He was released when the indictment was dropped in 1958, thanks in large part to a
campaign by creators in various fields, since he was never convicted of a crime and it was never determined
whether he was mad or sane. Interspersed with Pound's story is a history of St. Elizabeths and mental
health-care as well as commentary on some of his poems. VERDICT Recommended for both scholars and
general readers interested in this most enigmatic of 20th-century literary figures. [See Prepub Alert,
5/15/17.]--Denise J. Stankovics, Vernon, CT
Willes, Margaret. The Curious World of Samuel Pepys and John Evelyn. Yale Univ. Sept. 2017. 304p.
photos, notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9780300221398. $27.50. LIT
John Evelyn and Samuel Pepys, perhaps the best-known diarists of 17th-century England, were also friends
for 40 years. Here, Willes (Reading Matters; The Gardens of the British Working Class) presents their
public and private careers and then uses their interests in science, music and theater, gardening, trade, and
books to provide a portrait of their milieu. Thus, in discussing their membership in the Royal Society, the
author introduces other leading members and their scientific pursuits. The chapter on trade looks at
transformations wrought by the arrival of foreign goods such as tea, coffee, and chocolate as well as more
exotic wares. Pepys's and Evelyn's bibliophilia provides an entree to the print world of the Restoration.
However, Willes seems to be lacking a thesis, offering no new information about either man, nor the
England of their times. For fuller accounts, see Richard Ollard's Pepys, Claire Tomalin's Samuel Pepys,
John Bowles's John Evelyn and His World (not cited in Willes's bibliography), and Gillian Darley's John
Evelyn: Living for Ingenuity. VERDICT Despite its flaws, this is a pleasant survey of the life and times of
two fascinating individuals.--Joseph Rosenblum, Univ. of North Carolina, Greensboro
PERFORMING ARTS
50 Years of Rolling Stone: The Music, Politics and People That Shaped Our Culture. Abrams. May 2017.
288p. ed. by Jodi Peckman & Joy Levy, photos. ISBN 9781419724466. $65; ebk. ISBN 9781683350200.
MUSIC
In 1967, the first issue of Rolling Stone magazine commenced the publication's five-decade odyssey, which
has included coverage of music, film, television, current events and politics, combined with memorable
photographic portraits that range in mood from dramatic and emotional to whimsical. This gorgeous, largescale
coffee-table book is organized chronologically and includes iconic images of a vast panoply of the
giants of the arts, excerpts from famous interviews and pieces, and current reflections and background
context on some of the magazine's most memorable stories, with topics ranging from musicians and society
to presidential campaigns, the early years of the AIDS epidemic, and the dangers of climate change. Writers
from Hunter S. Thompson to Tom Wolfe, and photographers such as Annie Leibovitz and Mark Seliger
have been associated with Rolling Stone, and their work is pivotal in any review of the past decades of
entertainment and culture. VERDICT As a capsule of the changing times, tastes and styles of the last halfcentury,
this book is both a fitting tribute to a singular publication, and more importantly, a mirror and
survey of our society and times.--James Collins, Morristown-Morris Twp. P.L., NJ
Davis, Stephen. Gold Dust Woman: A Biography of Stevie Nicks. St. Martin's. Nov. 2017. 352p. photos.
ISBN 9781250032898. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250032904. BIOG
The latest unauthorized biography about legendary Fleetwood Mac member and solo artist Stevie Nicks (b.
1948) is what you'd expect--a dishy retelling of her much-reported sex, drugs, and rock and roll-filled life--
but with a lot of foofy words and sexist descriptions of the singer-songwriter, including an emphasis on her
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age, looks, and weight. This book has been in the works for several years (St. Martin's reportedly purchased
the rights in 2012), and author Davis (Hammer of the Cods: The Led Zeppelin Saga) has cobbled most of
the content from previously published interviews, magazine articles, track-by-track liner notes from Nicks's
various albums, and books by insiders such as bandmate (and former lover) Mick Fleetwood. Interestingly,
Davis first entered Fleetwood Mac's universe when he began helping the musician pen his memoirs in 1987;
his recollection of this experience is the freshest part of this book. VERDICT This title may attract curious
new or casual fans looking to learn about Nicks's life, but die-hard admirers of the performer will find little
new in its pages. [|See Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]--Samantha Gust, Niagara Univ. Lib., NY
*Gray, Beverly. Seduced by Mrs. Robinson: How "The Graduate" Became the Touchstone of a Generation.
Algonquin. Nov. 2017. 304p. notes, bibliog. index. ISBN 9781616206161. $24.95; ebk. ISBN
9781616207663. FILM
Inarguably one of the most influential films of the 1960s, The Graduate, which is based on the 1963 novella
of the same name by Charles Webb, has a great backstory. Just in time for its 50th anniversary, this behindthe-scenes
look at the modern classic by film historian and former story editor Gray (Roger Comum: BloodSucking
Vampires, Flesh-Eating Cockroaches, and Driller Killers; Ron Howard: From Mayberry to the
Moon...and Beyond) reveals an unlikely multicharacter marriage. A schlockmeister producer (Lawrence
Turman), a young film director (Mike Nichols), a New York actor considered too short and homely to play a
leading man (Dustin Hoffman), and an unsympathetic leading lady (Anne Bancroft) all combine to make
movie history. Gray has plumbed film archives and interviews to reveal the story behind optioning the book,
casting, and the intentions behind set and costume design. There is even scene-by-scene narration of the
plot. Readers discover how this seemingly unprepossessing movie, adapted from a decidedly not bestselling
novella, became one of the top-grossing films of its day, helping to articulate the frantic youth
movement that defined 1960s culture and made stars of its actors. VERDICT Highly recommended for
serious cineastes and fans. [See Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]--Ellen Abrams, New York
*Hytner, Nicholas. Balancing Acts: Behind the Scenes at London's National Theatre. Knopf. Nov. 2017.
352p. index. ISBN 9780451493408. $28.95; ebk. ISBN 9780451493415. THEATER
London's Royal National Theatre, comprised of the venue triumvirate of the Olivier, Lyttelton, and
Dorfman (formerly Cottesloe) Theatres, boasts a lineage of theatrical royalty. Sir Lawrence Olivier and Sir
Peter Hall served as artistic directors of the National; Hytner's 12-year tenure saw unprecedented growth in
audience development and artistic expression, success that has distinguished the National since 1963. This
exquisitely written memoir of Hytner's time running the National (2003-15), when he produced more than
100 new plays, is a revelatory exegesis of finding balance at all levels of artistic, technical, philosophical,
and commercial production. The pages sparkle with luminaries with whom the author has worked,
including Maggie Smith, Helen Mirren, Kenneth Branagh, Alan Bennet, Daniel Day-Lewis, Tom Stoppard,
and Harold Pinter. The elements Hytner so adroitly strived for in his stewardship of the National is
manifested throughout this memoir--the importance of new play development and classical, especially
Shakespearean, theater; weighing working in film vs. theater; the relationship of producer with director,
producer with playwright, producer as director with actor; and the precarious calibration of artistic and
commercial achievement. VERDICT An unqualified rave for this title. The theater crowd is the obvious
audience for this book, but the intelligence, wit, and humor throughout expands the scope of readership to
anyone interested in the arts. Well done, Sir Nicholas. [See Prepub Alert, 5/15/17.]--Barry X. Miller, Austin
P.L., TX
Lax, Eric. Start to Finish: Woody Allen and the Art of Moviemaking. Knopf. Oct. 2017. 352p. photos.
index. ISBN 9780385352499. $28.95; ebk. ISBN 9780385352505. FILM
Woody Allen biographer Lax (coauthor, Bogart; Conversations with Woody Allen) utilizes his longtime and
close access to the prolific film director and reaffirms the admiring and somewhat celebratory tone of his
earlier works as he describes the making of the 2015 film Irrational Man. From script writing to market
distribution, Lax observes Allen's actions and attitudes, quoting him extensively. Detailed treatments of the
director's controlling work and power in every aspect of the task--writing the script, finding money, hiring
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actors and production workers, visiting and picking locations, designing sets, determining camera angles,
and selecting music--are interspersed throughout the narrative. Allen's delight and caring for the person and
performance of starring actress Emma Stone as Jill, the wide-eyed student, seems to eclipse his excitement
over somber Joaquin Phoenix as Abe, the philosophy professor and existentially inclined murderer. In
conclusion, Allen nods to the existence of the binge-watching experience on the small screen and looks in
that direction. VERDICT Man isn't Allen's most dazzling creation, but revelations of his directorial style
and insights into the future of the radically changing film industry will make this volume appealing to film
scholars and Woody Allen fans. [See Prepub Alert, 4/24/17.]--Ann Fey, SUNY Rockland Community Coll.,
Suffern
PHILOSOPHY
Landau, Iddo. Finding Meaning in an Imperfect World. Oxford Univ. Aug. 2017. 312p. notes. ISBN
9780190657666. $24.95; ebk. ISBN 9780190657680. PHIL
Some people worry their life is meaningless, and this perceived lack of purpose can be rationally
debilitating, leading to the belief that nothing matters. In this work, Landau (philosophy, Haifa Univ., Israel;
Is Philosophy Androcentric?) asserts that we should reject such bleak conclusions, arguing that we can find
meaning within ourselves. Landau's text means to undermine arguments that readers might find persuasive
about the meaningless of life and give them instead a philosophical foundation to discover contentment
through critical reflection. This work is written at an introductory level and does not fully explore the issues
of meaning or value. Rather, it is intended as triage ethics--an urgent and passionate attempt to convince
readers that their lives matter. There is much to like about Landau's discussion, including interesting
assessments of relativism, the problem of free will, and moral value. However, this book begins in a
somewhat self-indulgent manner, the chapters are far too brief, and the conclusion too swift. This reviewer
hopes to see a revised version that begins with a greater focus on metaethical and metalinguistic questions
concerning meaning and its relationship to value. VERDICT Landau's motivation is unique, and general
audiences may be satisfied with his advice, but those seeking a more complete study should look
elsewhere.--William Simkulet, Cleveland State Univ., OH
POETRY
Melnick, Lynn. Landscape with Sex and Violence. YesYes. Oct. 2017.110p. ISBN 9781936919550. pap.
$18. POETRY
"Beachgoers frolic/ while I fuck a man shilling for Jesus" ("Landscape with Surf and Salvation"). "At night
I hallucinate the grunting discord// which leapt from a human body as he destroyed mine" ("Landscape with
Smut and Pavement"). Why so many landscapes in this fierce new collection (after If I Should Say I Have
Hope)? Because Melnick is pointing out that male sexual violence is embedded in our culture. It would be
easy to call these poems brave, tough, and angry but fairer to say that Melnick has gone beyond to a cool,
critical assessment of moments that define women's lives. In the particularly affecting "Historical
Accuracy," a budding teenage girl in an electric pink bathing suit imagines, "I hire a skywriter to describe
me: voluptuous, terrified, bewitching, willing to wait," then shows how one creepy encounter upends
everything: "the skywriter got confused and wrote:// terrified, show-stopping, mute, asking for it." Another
poem advises, "I think you should track me down/ the block and clarify how you'd like to split my slit
open// until I pass out," which reflects the virtue of this collection; Melnick makes you live the moment.
VERDICT Strong if not easy reading from a rising poet.--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
* Phillips, Carl. Wild Is the Wind. Farrar. Jan. 2018. 80p. ISBN 9780374290269. $23; ebk. ISBN
9780374717100. POETRY
In recent collections, two-time National Book Award finalist Phillips (Renaissance) has been preoccupied
with the weight of the past, but here he surpasses melancholy to present moments of crucial rethinking.
"I've pretty much/ been wrong," he says, and calmly, too, as he scans what has unfolded. Throughout,
Phillips balances on the knife's edge of regret but doesn't cut himself, acknowledging that "accepting our
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position, and understanding it/ still mattered, but not like remembering what/ the point had been." It's just
that grasping that point can be tricky. Memory is a "mirage of history" and history itself something that runs
over us roughshod and obdurate. "What hasn't been damaged?" the poet reflects at one point, elsewhere
observing, "The sea was one thing once; the field another. Either way, something got crossed, or didn't."
Can we distinguish between what's happened and how it's recalled, between what's joyously starlike and
merely bald-fact star? Does it all come to nothing (so different from "not knowing exactly what it's come
to")? Registering these distinctions in life takes the same rapt attention that Phillips's compact, cerebral
poems require, so that we can find all his gemlike observations. VERDICT Highly recommended.--Barbara
Hoffert, Library Journal
* Shockley, Evie. semiautomatic. Wesleyan Univ. (Poetry). Oct. 2017.104p. ISBN 9780819577436. $24.95;
ebk. ISBN 9780819577450. POETRY
In her typically uncompromising and intelligent language, award-winning poet Shockley (the new black)
investigates the ongoing abuses suffered by African Americans while connecting them to sociopolitical
threats worldwide ("through the holes in michael brown's body, I see: the fucking fracking chemicals
bleeding into the groundwater/... the coke brothers controlling the flow"). From the numerous elegies in "alyrical
ballad (or, how america reminds us of the value of family"), sardonically titled and embodying awful
family grieving, to "what's not to liken" ("the black girl was pinned to the ground like:/ (a) an amateur
wrestler in a professional fight./ (b) swimming in a private pool is a threat to national security"), Shockley
rattles readers with attentive portraits of incidents that will (sadly) be recognized. Shockley travels abroad to
honor W.E.B. Du Bois in Ghana, revisits the killing of Mark Duggan in 2011 London, and provides
historical context as well; one poem blends excerpts from Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave
Girl and Yamiceh Alcindor's "Sex Trafficking in the USA" to chilling effect. But these poems aren't just
reportage; ferocious wordplay and bristling language ("our rosier news is no nooses") see to that. VERDICT
Important for wide-ranging collections.--Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal
SPORTS & RECREATION
Cohen, Rich. The Chicago Cubs: Story of a Curse. Farrar. Oct. 2017.288p. illus. bibliog. ISBN
9780374120924. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780374717315. SPORTS
In his new book, Cohen (Monsters: The 1985 Bears and the Wild Heart of Football) takes a spin through the
history of the Chicago Cubs, including the team's numerous curses and the already legendary roster that
finally broke them all in 2016. The Curse of the Billy Goat is as much a part of the team's lore as first
baseman Ernie Banks, Wrigley Fields's ivy, and announcer Harry Caray declaring that someday the Cubs
would win the World Series. Cohen, who is known for writing about popular music as well as sports, brings
a brash, kinetic style to his many stories of the figures in Cub history. The people he writes about--Ron
Santo, Hack Wilson, Mordecai Brown, Grover Cleveland Alexander--almost feel like rock stars in Cohen's
hands. This book moves along rapidly through Cubs history up to the 2016 team, to which the volume's
largest portion is dedicated. Cohen's love for the Cubs and baseball, along with his well-developed style, put
this book above other recent Cubs-related releases. VERDICT Baseball fans will devour this all-too-brief
review of the Cubs' frustrating history yet joyous present.--Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.
Colletti, Ned with Joseph A. Reaves. The Big Chair: The Smooth Hops and Bad Bounces from the Inside
World of the Acclaimed Los Angeles Dodgers General Manager. Putnam. Oct. 2017.464p. index. ISBN
9780735215726. $28; ebk. ISBN 9780735215733. SPORTS
Sports enthusiasts may enjoy imagining themselves in the role of the cutthroat, wheeling-dealing general
manager, drafting players and putting together trades to build a winning team. What is it like to make those
deals in real life--that is, to sit in the Big Chair? Colletti's career memoir takes readers into the frenetic
world of major league sports, with all of its action and intrigue. He shares stories from his years working for
the Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, and currently as general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. The
best parts are when Colletti shares how some of his most famous deals came together; for example, bringing
Adrian Gonzalez and Josh Beckett to Los Angeles. The author's monient-by-moment recall of each
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conversation and movement succeed in bringing the life of a general manager into focus. And while he
writes affectionately about certain players, this does not overtake the narrative. VERDICT An excellent
addition to the growing library of sports executive books that will have broad appeal, beyond Dodger
fandom.--Brett Rohlwing, Milwaukee P.L.
Oxenham, Gwendolyn. Under the Lights and In the Dark: Untold Stories of Women's Soccer. Icon. Sept.
2017.320p. illus. notes. ISBN 9781785781537. $22.95; ebk. ISBN 9781785781544. SPORTS
Fans of women's soccer face a twin challenge in the United States: the game itself is still aspiring to major
league status, and women's sports are generally overshadowed by men's. There is a real sense, though, that
momentum is building here and around the world for women's soccer, enthusiastically confirmed in this
collection of biographical profiles by journalist Oxenham (Finding the Game). Among the voices
highlighted are a gay goalkeeper in Tennessee, an African player struggling with culture shock, and an
Afghani refugee--all of whom are devoted to the game they love. Oxenham's own experiences as a college
and overseas professional give her special insight into the players' passion, despite their low pay and
uncertain work conditions. The collection ends with a chapter about the Portland, OR, Thorns, a National
Women's Soccer League team with an engaged fan base worthy of any major league team. VERDICT An
eye-opening, cohesive collection of fascinating stories that will help bring women's soccer to the next level.
Appropriate for high school students, public libraries, and all readers interested in the future of the sport.--
Janet Davis, Darien P.L., CT
Pappu, Sridhar. The Year of the Pitcher: Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, and the End of Baseball's Golden
Age. Houghton Harcourt. Oct. 2017.400p. photos. notes. bibliog. index. ISBN 9780547719276. $28; ebk.
ISBN 9781328768131. SPORTS
The extraordinary 1968 baseball season is known as the year of the pitcher and included two of finest
pitchers of all time: Denny McLain of the Detroit Tigers and Bob Gibson of the St. Louis Cardinals. Gibson
set a modern-era major league record, finishing with a 1.12 earned run average. Meanwhile, McLain was
the last person to win more than 30 games (he finished with 33), a record that has yet to be broken. New
York Times columnist Pappu offers an exciting look into that legendary season, beautifully capturing both
pitchers' fascinating journeys throughout their careers. The author effectively interweaves the stories of
McLain and Gibson in an engaging fashion, engrossing readers with the rivalry of Detroit and St. Louis.
Enjoyable chapters describe the lead up to one of the most exciting World Series in baseball history, in
which Detroit came back to win the championship from a 3-1 deficit. VERDICT Devoted baseball fans will
appreciate this story from one of major league's best years.--Gus Palas, Ela Area P.L., Lake Zurich, IL
Ross, Jim with Paul O'Brien. Slobberknocker: My Life in Wrestling. Sports Pub. Oct. 2017. 352p. index.
ISBN 9781683581130. $24.99. SPORTS
Professional wrestling announcer Ross (The Stone Cold Truth), aka JR, tells his story in this entertaining
autobiography coauthored with O'Brien (Blood Red Turns Dollar Green: A Novel). Ross grew up on an
Oklahoma farm with a love of wresting that eventually led him to dedicate his life to the sport. He got his
start driving his boss to wrestling shows, setting up the ring, and refereeing matches. He then moved on to
announcing live TV matches, which became his passion. After jobs with different wrestling organizations,
Ross began working at WWE in the 1990s. Here, he talks about encounters with famous wrestlers, offers
his perspective of the 1997 Montreal Screwjob and the 1998 Hell in a Cell match, and recounts his
relationship with wrestler and WWE chairman and CEO Vince McMahon (who wrote the foreword). Ross
also helped promote stars such as "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (who wrote the afterword) and Dwayne "The
Rock" Johnson. In sharing these stories, Ross reveals his two divorces and shortcomings as a husband and
father, further touching on his bouts with Bell's palsy and the physical effects of partial facial paralysis.
VERDICT A candid memoir for fans of WWE, professional wrestling, and those who root for the
underdog.--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI
Source Citation (MLA 8th
Edition)
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"Arts & humanities." Library Journal, 15 Sept. 2017, p. 72+. General OneFile,
http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A504543732/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=15793a9f.
Accessed 25 Apr. 2018.
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BOOKS
Vivian Maier, Through a Clearer Lens
Books of The Times
By PARUL SEHGAL OCT. 31, 2017
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Vivian Maier, at 25, aboard the SS de Grasse en route to New York in 1951. Credit Photograph from the Ron Slattery collection
No one would find the prospect of posthumous fame more appalling than the photographer Vivian Maier. In life, she fanatically concealed her traces: She liked strong bolts on her doors, fake names (she had at least three in rotation) and what seemed to be a spurious French accent. She rarely discussed or shared her work. Many assumed she was homeless.
“I’m sort of a spy,” she’d tell people. “I’m the mystery woman.”
She died in a nursing home in 2009, at 83, slipping away as anonymously as she’d lived. Her story would have ended there — but she had left riches in her wake.
Among Maier’s possessions were more than 100,000 negatives — a startling body of work imbued with the humanism of Robert Frank and Lisette Model but a mischief all its own. From the 1950s, she had been photographing city life with greedy intensity, capturing vagrants passed out on the Bowery; the carcasses of the Chicago stockyards; Lena Horne, spotted on the street, on a bright autumn day — and, above all, herself. She couldn’t pass a reflective surface — a shop window, a mirror or any shiny piece of metal — without snapping a selfie. In photo after photo, she stares directly at you: a rangy woman with a deadpan expression, wearing a man’s shirt and shoes. Almost immediately upon discovery of her work, she was heralded as one of the 20th century’s great photographers.
Photo
Credit Sonny Figueroa/The New York Times
The Maier myth followed. She became the “nanny photographer,” the secretive self-taught genius who tramped around town with a Rolleiflex camera around her neck and her young charges in tow. The eBay enthusiasts who snatched up her negatives at auction with the hopes of reselling them became heroes for saving her from obscurity. One, a real estate agent named John Maloof, bought the bulk of her estate for $400 and made it his mission to share her work with the world. He has published books of her photographs, arranged exhibitions, and co-written and co-directed a documentary, “Finding Vivian Maier” (2013), that was nominated for an Academy Award.
Continue reading the main story
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But stories — like snapshots — are shaped by people, and for particular purposes. There’s always an angle. A new biography, “Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife,” by Pamela Bannos, strives to rescue Maier all over again, this time from the men who promulgated the Maier myth and profited off her work; chiefly Maloof, who controlled her copyright for a time. After a legal battle — “the Vivian Mire,” one critic called it — her estate passed into a trust last year, where it will be held for possible heirs and eventually released into the public domain.
Photo
Maier often created self-portraits in mirrors. Credit Image from the Ron Slattery negative collection. Courtesy of the Estate of Vivian Maier © 2017 The Estate of Vivian Maier. All rights reserved.
The book braids together three strands: a brisk, rather generic history of American photography; a biography of Maier; and a withering account of how the artist has been represented since her death. “My goal was always to recognize and give Maier agency within her own story,” Bannos writes. She tries to dislodge the portrayal of Maier as a mysterious, freakish figure, and to see a person where others have seen mostly pathology: her hoarding and possible paranoia.
Bannos makes the case that Maier lived a much larger, more varied life than assumed. This famous recluse once took a five-month trip around the world as well as a subarctic train expedition, both times traveling with just her camera for company. As for her notorious secrecy, it served a purpose, at least in the beginning. Her parents were frantic dissemblers who struggled to conceal scandals of illegitimacy, abandonment and institutionalization. Of course Maier was wary about sharing her personal details, Bannos reasons: Who would hire a nanny with such a sordid family life?
Photo
Pamela Bannos Credit Manuela Hung
Nor should we be so struck that Maier never wanted to show her work to anyone. Sharing comes easily, too easily, to us. Not so for Maier, who told a friend that “if she had not kept her images secret, people would have stolen or misused them” — how prophetic that now seems. And her compulsive photographing prefigured our own relationship with our phones, Bannos says, our own desire to constantly document our lives.
In this way, almost point by point, Bannos refutes how Maier has been marketed. And she looks at how it has benefited Maloof et al. to present Maier as a strange, incapable wraith, how it made them look all the more heroic, and allowed them to cavalierly overlook her absolute unwillingness to show her work publicly.
In a strange coincidence, Bannos reports, 21 years after Maier lived on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, where she cared for the dark-haired girl who often appears in her photos, Susan Sontag would move into the penthouse of the very same building and begin the essays in “On Photography.” “Photographs alter and enlarge our notions of what is worth looking at and what we have a right to observe,” Sontag wrote in the opening pages of that book. “They are a grammar and, even more importantly, an ethics of seeing. Finally, the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we can hold the whole world in our heads.”
Biographies and documentaries can tempt us the same way. They can offer the fantasy of absolute knowledge, absolute possession (perhaps this is how Maloof went astray). The achievement of Bannos’s intelligent, irritable self-reflexive study is in its restraint. She unseats the ghost and restores to us the woman — but in her own words and images, and without psychologizing. It’s a portrait as direct as any of Maier’s, and what a distinct pleasure it is to meet her gaze again.
Follow Parul Sehgal on Twitter: @parul_sehgal
VIVIAN MAIER
A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife
By Pamela Bannos
Illustrated. 362 pages. The University of Chicago Press. $35.
A version of this review appears in print on November 1, 2017, on Page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Person In Place Of Pathology. Today's Paper|Subscribe
The Life and Afterlife of Vivian Maier
By Pamela Bannos November 20, 2017 ARTS & CULTURE
VIVIAN MAIER, 1958. (IMAGE FROM THE RON SLATTERY NEGATIVE COLLECTION.)
The following is an excerpt from Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife, which was published last month.
There are many ways to get the wrong picture about Vivian Maier. Call her a nanny, as if that was her identity, instead of a photographer. Call her just a Chicagoan or just a Frenchwoman, instead of a born Manhattanite and self- styled European. Call her Vivian, as if you know her well. Call her a mystery or an enigma, as if no one ever knew her, or ever could.
To get the right picture, look at her squarely, as she would look at you: on her own terms, from her own evidence of who she was and what she did. Only then can we begin to see Vivian Maier, woman and photographer, and begin to enter her world.
The story of the Vivian Maier phenomenon has been told so many times that it can now be reduced to a few short phrases:
Her storage lockers went into arrears.
A young man named John Maloof bought a box of her negatives.
He googled her name and found that she had died a few days earlier.
He discovered the woman known today as the mysterious nanny street photographer.
But rarely is a story as simple as the filtered- down version that results from multiple retellings. Each link in the chain of the Vivian Maier story branches to reveal a much more complex and nuanced saga. Our current lack of understanding of this woman and her passion for photography stems from oversimplifications of her emergence and packaged versions of the story.
Ethical issues have largely been glossed over in favor of a heroic narrative that benefits the people who have been selling her work. We are told that they have saved Vivian Maier from oblivion and have allowed us to own pieces of her legacy. Many people believe that Maier would be pleased with the sharing of her work in this way; yet she plainly chose to not share it while she was alive. Some feel that Maier would have destroyed her work if she didn’t want it to be found; one writer has even suggested that she had saved it for us.
VIVIAN MAIER. (IMAGE FROM THE RON SLATTERY NEGATIVE COLLECTION. COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF VIVIAN MAIER © 2017 THE ESTATE OF VIVIAN MAIER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
I have looked carefully at tens of thousands of Vivian Maier’s images. I have walked in her footsteps. I have delved the archives in search of everything we might know about Vivian Maier and her work. As I entered the world of her photographs, a different person emerged for me than the one who was shaped for the public imagination. I also learned about Maier’s development as a photographer and her life as an independent woman. She cultivated an air of mystery, but she no longer seems like a “mystery woman” to me.
This book is a counterpoint, a counternarrative, and a corrective to the public depiction of Vivian Maier and her work that emerged through five photo books that were published between 2011 and 2014, drawing on two separate collections of Maier’s photography, one belonging to John Maloof and the other to Jeffrey Goldstein. Each book was larger than the last. Hundreds of her pictures also appeared in documentaries about her. Altogether, the books and movies reproduced more than a thousand images— possibly illegally. In addition, Vivian Maier’s photography has spread across every social network site and countless individual blogs.
In the time since her work first emerged into the public eye, Vivian Maier became big business: Jeffrey Goldstein, who amassed his collection for $100,000, sold $500,000 worth of her work in one year, and John Maloof’s film, Finding Vivian Maier, has grossed more than $3.5 million. A third collector, Ron Slattery, sued a gallery for $2 million on account of damage to some Maier photographs. Some of Vivian Maier’s vintage prints are priced upwards of $12,000 apiece. There have been posters, brochures, postcards, and movie DVDs— not to mention the fortune to be made in licensing fees.
STUYVESANT TOWN APARTMENT COMPLEX, NEW YORK, 1954. (PHOTOGRAPH FROM THE RON SLATTERY COLLECTION. COURTESY OF THE ESTATE OF VIVIAN MAIER © 2017 THE ESTATE OF VIVIAN MAIER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)
In my research, I found repeated themes that permeate both Vivian Maier’s work and the story of its discovery and propagation. High and low culture intermingle, with profound economic results; Maier’s work and her life are defined over and over again by presumptions about and representations of her as a woman; and both in life and work, no one can quite agree on her story, her character, and her value. Even in France, where she spent key parts of her childhood and young adulthood, opposing associations have claimed Maier’s legacy. Two men from opposite sides of Maier’s mother’s family have claimed to be her heir— with profound implications for those who claimed the right to reproduce and profit from her photographs.
Vivian Maier’s abundant legacy (more than four tons of stored boxes) was scattered at auction. As a result of the way her photographic work was dispersed and resold, dozens of people now own her possessions and pieces of her work. Since I began studying her fractured archive, I have found and been contacted by individuals who were at the auctions of her possessions and others who subsequently bought her belongings on eBay.
While the rest of the world may be hearing of her story for the first time, in Chicago the story has become familiar. Chicago is where “Viral Vivian” emerged, where the major players in her story reside, and where the press has incessantly reported on the triumphs of her works’ exposure, and some locals are now “Vivian Maiered- out.” In the summer of 2014, prints from Jeffrey Goldstein’s collection were exhibited simultaneously in four separate Chicago- area venues. The abundance of photographs threatened to water down Maier’s oeuvre, doing her no favor in its presentation. A local newspaper headlined an article “Vivian Maier: Cottage Industry.” A local writer penned his version of the saga and called it “The Vivian Mire.”
The scuffles around ownership of Vivian Maier’s legacy have diminished her presence, relegating her to the background in her own photographs. In many ways, Vivian Maier’s world was established before she was born: she perpetuated the legacy of her mother and grandmother, who were live- in servants, and her mother’s illegitimate birth established the first in a line of family secrets. Maier entered the world of photography, which like her took shape in both France and New York and, like her, has no simple lineage. Vivian Maier’s multiple shooting strategies remained constant. Her earliest known photographs reveal a confident and informed photographer— not a “street photographer” or a “suburban nanny photographer.” Maier and her photography were all of that and much more.
Vivian Maier’s story is a more complex story than a few short phrases can describe. We need to thoroughly understand both it and her if we are to accurately honor her life and legacy.
Reprinted with permission from Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife. © 2017 by Pamela Bannos. Published by the University of Chicago Press. All rights reserved.
Pamela Bannos is professor of photography in Northwestern University’s department of art theory and practice.
BOOKS
Was Vivian Maier's Work About Getting a Life or Recording Life?
CHRISTOPHER JOHN STEPHENS 16 Jan 2018
PAMELA BANNOS HAS WRITTEN A CAREFUL, TOUCHING, DELICATE BIOGRAPHY THAT ESCORTS MAIER OUT OF THE SHADOWS AND INTO THE LIGHT WITHOUT RISKING OVEREXPOSURE.
VIVIAN MAIER: A PHOTOGRAPHER'S LIFE AND AFTERLIFE
PAMELA BANNOS
University Of Chicago Press
Oct 2017
OTHER
The legend of Vivian Maier could not have been more tailor-made for a Hollywood film. Indeed, it's surprising her story has yet to be told in a fictionalized format. The story was told, however, by John Maloof and Charlie Siskel in their 2013 Academy Award-nominated documentary Finding Vivian Maier, and that helped cement the myth of Vivian as the "nanny photographer".
There she was, this lanky woman with her short haircut, wearing a man's shirt and shoes, that glare of hers both piercing and empty, cautiously exposing her face in one of the many self-portraits she would take while passing mirrors. Her appearance, from the early '50s onward, when as a 25-year-old woman she seemed to come into her own as a photographer, lent itself more towards an asexual nanny and caregiver than a carefree independent woman. She consumed images, shot over 100,000 negatives (most undeveloped at the time of her 2009 death) and otherwise stayed to herself through a peripatetic lifetime of linking herself with families, caring for their children, and hoarding every significant (and many insignificant) images on film.
Why begin this discussion of Maier with a comment about her appearance? What does that have to do with her status as something more than just a mysterious nanny who left behind a legacy of photographic studies? Pamela Bannos's Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife is a richly detailed and surprisingly exciting look at the life and times of this woman whose main goal seemed to be one of completely erasing herself from the picture. For Maier, photography seemed to be about recording facts and documenting observations. The glimpses we see of her in these self-portraits seem almost accidental, almost shameful. It seems as if she's apologizing for the intrusion. Maier lived as a photographer from approximately 1950, at 24, through the end of her life 59 years later, shuffling time between nearly two dozen employment opportunities (including time living with and working for TV talk show host Phil Donahue's family.)
Maier died in 2009 as anonymously and alone as she seemed to have lived, but the emergence of her photographs and what has since been done with them comprises at least half of Vivian Maier. It's a hard balance to accomplish and Bannos manages it, for the most part. She seems to understand, as a professor of photography in Northwestern University's department of art theory and practice, that the story of Maier's life and afterlife probably depends more on the former than the latter. Who is John Maloof? Who is Ron Slattery? Who is Allan Sekula? These are three of the handful of names and wheeler-dealers who came out from under the lifted rocks to assume ownership of and responsibility for Maier's legacy. The questions about their motivations linger. Did they have a right to the work if no heir surfaced? Would they be guilty of artistic appropriation no matter what they did while presenting her prints through books, documentaries, and gallery exhibitions? Was there any way they could have Vivian's best interests in mind, or were they simply looking to make as much money as quickly as possible?
The inherent difficulty in any book about photography that isn't primarily a coffee table-sized collection of the photographer's greatest hits is that the writer needs to vividly and carefully describe the photos, impose motivations on them, and depend on the reader to either search them out on their own or have previous knowledge of the style and technique. Vivian Maier is a dual biography of a woman who seemed to go to the greatest lengths possible to stay off the grid, and it's a story of the photos. There's Cary Grant, James Mason, and Eva Marie Saint in a car en route to the premiere of their film North By Northwest. There's the image of a couple embraced, horizontally, on a public beach. Inside, there are images that bring to mind the great New York street photographer Weegee, the humanism of Walker Evans and Robert Frank, and people sleeping in alleyways, on stairs, unaware of Maier's presence.
Maier was drawn to taking portraits of elderly women, action shots, carcasses in Chicago stockyards, and migrant families in places as far off as Vancouver, British Columbia. Vivian went where her employer families went. While a viewer might expect the images to reflect a life in service of another, they instead proved to be more challenging, more elusive, not confrontational so much as simply bearing witness to experience. Bannos details the mental illness and elusive nature of Vivian Maier's family to such an extent that the reader comes to understand there was no other option for our subject but to get out and find something else. Was it about getting a life, or recording a life?
A 1947 New York Times article seemed -- in the photography column that had been running for nine years at that time -- to set forth the mission Maier followed for the lifetime of photography she would start three years later: "…The best approach is the leisurely one, with no set program to reach anywhere at a particular time." Bannos goes to great lengths to dismiss the party line, apparently perpetrated by Maloof, that Maier was both a mysterious nanny and a photographic savant. This was the pitch that apparently sold the idea of Maier as a force of importance in American photography. Here was this woman with no past, no connections, and a future dependent on the needs of her employer. The pictures were merely residue of her concealed life -- or were they?
It takes time to build this story, and the patient reader should be rewarded. In the last years of her life, leading up to and following her 2009 death, interest develops and eventually explodes regarding the origin of Maier's photos, their motivation, and the spark that lit their carefully composed genius. Bannos writes of Maier's "…waist-length periscope viewfinder" and how it made it easier for her to photograph unsuspecting subjects. "Inquistiveness-and even voyeurism -- is the basis of on-the-street photography." This woman, apparently allergic to intimate human contact and resistant to allowing anybody to get close to her, is able to document seemingly everybody she sees. Whether this is a coping mechanism for a failure to build an intimate personal life, or an element of her artistic genius, is a question Bannos allows to be asked without expecting an answer.
More difficulty comes in Vivian Maier when Pamela Bannos has to make conclusions based on available evidence. There was Vivian, with her Rolleiflex, taking portraits of Bowery residents that look more like the product of an assignment than the random luck of agreeable and photogenic subjects. Bannos seems to tread hesitantly in making these conclusions, but they're understandable. While she does question John Maloof's motivations, and whether or not he should have cropped Maier's photos for modern display, she does give him credit where and when it's due:
"In the same way that… Eugene Atget needed to be recontextualized to have his importance recognized, Vivian Maier and her work could be resurrected and woven into the history of photography."
Bannos goes on to conclude, perhaps begrudgingly, that Maloof was the greatest patron Maier could have wished to have in life. What he does with her post-life legacy will always be subject to judgment based on whoever sits on the committee.
The primary story in Vivian Maier is easy to understand. A young woman finds a life's purpose at 24 through photography. For over half a century, she wanders from situation to situation, careful not to leave a visible trace of ever having been anywhere, her only dependents a series of storage spaces containing her life's work. The secondary story, involving Maloof and the others who took it upon themselves to absorb Maier's work and distill it through their own agendas, is more clearly developed and Bannos pulls no punches:
"Maloof's voice stood in for Maier's, making him a kind of surrogate for her… the early descriptions… Maloof helped spread were inaccurate and incomplete, giving rise to ever-changing and increasingly embellished stories that created a myth…"
Bannos continues by noting that Maloof's selections of Maier's prints to display in 2010, a year after the woman's death, evoked comparisons to Lisette Model and Diane Arbus. Was it too much? Was it academically legitimate? Maier's post-life popularity becomes embroiled in big money and literal hired guns, which makes the reader hope that one day it becomes dramatized. Bannos notes that Maloof made no pretense of having any understanding of photography when he bought Maier's negatives, which brings to mind the idea that whoever owns the balls gets to dictate the rules and timing of the game.
"I have to tell you that I come with my life, and my life is in boxes," Maier tells one of her final employers, and the reader comes to understand the importance of accumulations and assessing a life's work as something tangible, something visible. The legal legacy of Maier's work was settled in 2017. The tangled route those negatives followed ended up with some Swiss Investors, and her estate sued Jeffrey Goldstein (who sold them to Stephen Bulger before they were acquired by the Swiss Investors.) Bannos notes, quite logically, that Maier's story is still happening.
There's a sadness cloud that lingers over Vivian Maier and it's hard to shake off once finished. Bannos has written a careful, touching, delicate biography that escorts Maier out of the shadows and into the light without risking overexposure. It's the work that matters, in the end, and Maier's collection should continue to challenge, intrigue, and register as an important testament to understanding the omnipresent thin line in photography between observation and intrusion.
Rating:
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NOVEMBER 23, 2017
TO MANY, Vivian Maier is known as the mysterious Chicago nanny who took photographs secretly — thousands and thousands of photographs, often left as undeveloped rolls of negatives, which she then boxed up and stored in lockers. She was perceived by the locals in her Rogers Park neighborhood as a cantankerous old bag lady who ate food out of cans. Nobody knew about her art. But in the months before she died on April 21, 2009, aged 83, her storage lockers went into arrears. The padlocks came off, and all her photos and old cameras, her stacks of newspapers, magazines, and other items, went up for blind auction. One buyer bought the whole lot, and put it up for sale again in four or five subsequent auctions, thus setting in motion the scattering of Maier’s work. Some buyers, curious about the photos they found, began posting them on the internet.
The discovery of Vivian Maier caused a sensation in the art world, and her story has captivated many. It is, after all, a tale of mystery and intrigue: a woman who works as a nanny, never marries, says almost nothing about her life and childhood, dies in obscurity, dwarfed by the belongings she hoarded, only to be unveiled as one of the boldest and most poetic street photographers of the 20th century. It is difficult not to be fascinated by the woman, who can be glimpsed in the various self-portraits she took throughout her life, casting her distinctive shadow on a pavement or a wall — the tall, austere figure with an angular face and a beguiling stare, always smartly dressed in 1950s-style skirt suits or overcoats regardless of what decade it actually was.
This is exactly the story Pamela Bannos, in the first full biography of Maier, sets out to discredit. Vivian Maier: A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife is intended as “a counterpoint, a counternarrative, and a corrective” to the narrative spun primarily by the buyers of Maier’s boxes at the auctions of August 2007, and in particular, former real estate agent John Maloof, who has done more than anyone else to make Maier visible. As one blogger put it in 2014, Maloof could be described as a man who “just found an old photo in storage, attached [his] name to it, claimed all rights and sold limited editions of that photo for thousands of dollars.” It is difficult to avoid Maloof when seeking out Maier’s photography. He has published three books of her photos and made a documentary, Finding Vivian Maier, released in 2014. When the productions are not in his name he has shown less enthusiasm however: he refused to collaborate when the BBC arrived in Chicago to make their own documentary on Maier for Alan Yentob’s Imagine series; when Bannos began working on this biography, Maloof set such high demands she found it impossible to work with him, thus denying her access to his collection.
Maloof is, undoubtedly, the archvillain in A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife, cultivating the image of the “mystery nanny photographer” and even admitting this was what kept him going. “If I knew all about her, I don’t think I’d be as interested,” he says. But he is also the figurehead of a deeper problem dogging all Maier scholarship: given that she was so secretive, and that her oeuvre has subsequently been so dispersed, can we ever build a true picture of the artist? To this, Bannos simply follows the photographs, tracing where Maier went and looking at what subjects drew her eye. Her approach is refreshing — a clear-eyed, empirical account that counters the willfully obscure, ego-driven yarns spun by the buyers. In this light, A Photographer’s Life and Afterlife is a work of real integrity in a field lacking such a genuine spirit of inquiry.
The biography proceeds by dual narratives, shifting between recounting and retracing Maier’s life, and the story of how her oeuvre was subsequently “discovered” following the auctions — Maier’s life, in other words, and the afterlife of her work, told in parallel. This jumping across time has its drawbacks for the flow of the biography. With the constant shifting from one epoch to another, we become less immersed in Maier’s life, and, perhaps as a by-product of this, Maier’s childhood in New York and France, her work as a nanny, the heyday of her photography in New York and Chicago throughout the ’50s and ’60s, and then her slow decline from the ’70s onward lack intensity. It is clear the nature of Maier’s photography evolved as the world around her changed, just as the cultural, social, and political atmosphere in the previous decades infused her work and likely influenced her behavior. But when Bannos describes this context, and offers some color and detail on the developments in art and photography, the shifts and controversies in society and politics, the prose can be clunky and dutiful — paragraphs are often tacked onto sections, as though to do the job of contextualization in a few lines, but evoked without much passion. A deftness of touch in knitting together biographical material with the historical situation is lacking.
One forgives Bannos, however, because she directs her energies on getting the counternarrative right, and this she manages admirably.
Maier’s choices to not share her history or her photography also seem vital to seeing her as a woman who did her best to control the way she was seen, as well as how she viewed and recorded her surroundings. Maier found men to be “uncouth” yet her legacy has been almost entirely in the hands of men — something we cannot ignore when considering how her life and work have been depicted.
The facts about Maier’s life unearthed by Bannos take us to New York first, where Maier was born, on February 1, 1926. Her mother, a Frenchwoman named Marie Jaussaud, had left the Champsaur Valley in the Alps in 1914, following in the footsteps of her own mother Eugénie, who had sailed to New York in 1901. Both worked as domestic servants. In New York, Marie met Charles Maier and had two children with him, Karl and Vivian. Their union was brief. In 1932, as the Depression hit its lowest point in the United States and work was scarce, Marie took her daughter back to France, where they stayed six years before returning to New York. There, Maier would begin to work as a nanny, earning enough to travel — first to her family’s home in France in 1950 and 1951, where her first known photographs were taken, and then in 1959, for a trip around the world, alone. Maier’s last employment was in 1996 in Chicago. Thirteen years later she died, in a city hospital. One of the children she had looked after as a nanny identified her body and organized her funeral. Maier herself never married, never had children, and was not known to have had any romantic relationships.
We cannot know for sure what influence Maier’s upbringing had on her photography, and Bannos resists speculating. It seems Maier both followed the path open to her, working as she did as a nanny, and at the same time made a conscious effort to break with her family and origins. She never spoke about her private life and she changed details on her birth certificate and other identification papers, suggesting she was doing her best to live a free life, as much as this was possible to her. “Her separation from her own family,” Bannos writes, “as she assumed an outsider’s role [as a nanny] among others stands out as a poignant reminder of her independence and self-determination.” None of this indicates a pathway to photography however, making her decision to devote her life and most of her money to the pursuit remarkable.
Maier’s oeuvre is thrilling to explore, but it remains disturbing to think how her privacy in life has been so compromised after her death. This also raises broader questions about orphaned art works and what drives artists to create in the first place. Asked by one acquaintance who glimpsed a few of her photos why she would not show her work to anyone, Maier apparently replied that if she had not kept her images secret, people would have stolen or misused them. Given the exposure of her work today, its proliferation online, in books, and in galleries, one wonders whether she would have been horrified by all the attention. She chose to remain unknown. We cannot even say if she self-identified as a photographer. Every house she lived in as a nanny she asked for a padlock on her bedroom door; whenever she went out alone to take her photographs she refused to say where she was going and got angry if asked; in her bookcases, she turned the spines of her books against the wall so the titles remained hidden. All these details suggest Maier wanted her anonymity to remain intact, and perhaps she never imagined she had anything other people might care to see.
But she is dead, she left no will and made no apparent attempt to determine the fate of her photographs. Should we honor what we think the artist might have wanted? Maier’s oeuvre joins the other art collections, discovered by strangers, in an age of freewheeling circulation of images on the internet. In many ways, Maier and the various ways she has been understood, from the “mystery nanny” to the “street photographer,” is a construction and reflection of our time and much less of her own. This is what makes Bannos’s biography so welcome. For the most part she lets Maier emerge simply from what she did — her travels, her photos, her actions. Only in her closing remarks does Bannos give us the swiftest brush strokes of a portrait, which is worth remembering for it is one of the most lucid and accurate summations of Maier’s work to date.
Vivian Maier was a fiercely independent woman who lived the life of a photographer while also working as a nanny. She had a difficult personality, she was a hoarder, and she sought anonymity. These qualities may ultimately have little to do with her photography, but together they form a picture of a woman who chose to remain unknown.
There are two mysteries around Maier that are neither disrespectful nor irrelevant to pursue. The first is practical. Why did Maier stop taking photographs so abruptly in the ’80s? She would live another three decades. Did she stop? We cannot be sure. All we know is that almost all her known prints were packed up by the end of the ’60s, also around the time she stopped developing her black-and-white film — “a choice that today contributes to multiple readings of her intentions,” Bannos writes. For the next 40 years, Maier carried all her material with her in boxes, alarming new employers, some of whom would give over their garages and attics to store her belongings. Maier’s downward spiral began in the mid-’70s, by which point the subjects of her photographs had changed — the vivid, moving portraits of people started to disappear and were replaced by trash on the street, countless newspapers, fresh piles off the press or single copies torn and discarded. This was an evolution, but was it announcing an imminent end? Or have we simply not discovered all the work from later decades?
The second mystery is more essential, and unknowable. Why did Maier take photos and live the life of a photographer if she did not want to show her work or ever have it seen? It is moving to imagine her working so privately, without any apparent desire for recognition or visibility. What drives an artist to create, detached from any thought about reception or market, or apparently any desire to communicate through the art? If Maier was not interested in any of this, it is admirable — and also odd. The attempt to communicate an idea, an experience, or an emotion drives much artistic creativity, even if that artist has little interest in her potential audience. With Maier however, we must consider the possibility that she was not interested in communicating anything to anyone.
Another possibility is Maier feared the reception she would get because of the nature of her photographic process, which often involved prowling and stalking strangers. But if she simply lacked faith in the interests and motivations of others, should they get their hands on her photographs, this leaves us to wonder: If Maier had such little faith in other people, and no intent to have her work seen, why did she not do more to safeguard her oeuvre? By boxing it up in storage lockers, and then not paying the rent, she was leaving it to the wolves. She could have avoided all this by destroying it, and ensured absolute privacy and obscurity to the end. Given what we now know about Maier, this final abandon she showed with her oeuvre is baffling. Perhaps the idea of destroying it was, understandably, unbearable, or perhaps some part of her did want the world to see it eventually. And perhaps, ultimately, she was just too tired, in the end, to deal with all that.
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Emilie Bickerton is the author of A Short History of Cahiers du Cinema (Verso) and the screenwriter of the film Amnesia, which was released in 2015.