Vivian Maier

"""Patiently and lucidly detailed by Pamela Bannos in her nearly forensic biography--which unties many knots and brings order to what was previously a chaotic welter of information and misinformation.""--Luc Sante ""Bookforum "" ""This is an excellent book that reads like a mystery novel tracing Vivian Maier's life and work as a photographer through the photographs themselves. Bannos uses historical research and interviews as well as Maier's photographs to string together a story of her whereabouts, interests, and evolution as a photographer. Wonderful and engrossing.""--Elizabeth Currid-Halkett, author of Starstruck: The Business of Celebrity ""Authoritative. . . . Fascinating, thorough. . . . Up to now, Maier's story has been told mostly by Maloof and two other collectors who owned much of the prints, negatives, undeveloped film and personal effects she left behind without a will or instructions as to their disposal. Unlike those collectors, Bannos has no significant financial stake in the Maier myth. Also unlike them, she is a photographer herself and a woman, and thus more naturally able to put herself in Maier's shoes."" --Dmitry Samarov ""New City "" ""The Vivian Maier who emerges from the pages of this meticulously researched book is ultimately more mysterious and important a figure than the initial, and mostly inaccurate, accounts of her life and photography portrayed. The interweaving of Maier's story and photography's technical and cultural history contextualizes her achievements and shows a reality that is much more compelling than prior characterizations of Maier as a na�ve 'nanny-photographer.' Surprisingly, Bannos' unsentimental yet powerful examination reveals a woman who was solidly in charge of her own creativity."" --Lynne Warren, editor of the Encyclopedia of Twentieth-Century Photography ""Vivian Maier: A Photographer's Life and Afterlife strives to correct and complicate what is known about the life and work of Vivian Maier. The intertwined stories of Maier's unconventional life and the travails of those who have 'discovered' her work make for a fascinating read. Bannos clarifies misconceptions that have proliferated around Maier's story and offers an equally interesting look at the growth of the Maier phenomenon."" --Elizabeth Fraterrigo, author of Playboy and the Making of the Good Life in Modern America ""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. . . . Almost point by point, Bannos refutes how Maier has been marketed. . . . 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."" --Parul Sehgal ""New York Times """