Vivian was an American street photographer born in New York City in 1926, however, Maier spent most her youth within France. She was mainly a nanny/ care giver but she enjoyed venturing within the work of photography. She took over 5 decades worth of photographs and had over 100,000 negatives left behind after her death in 2009. Despite this Maier’s work was still unpublished due to her financial struggles. Maier took photographs mainly within New York and Chicago and within her colour work she displayed a shallow depth of field or a clear profile focus. Also within her work she displays a clear focus on a specific colour scheme.
She displays everyday scenes and individuals throughout their daily life that identify a pattern or a story within them each without describing them at all. Maier uses a mix of both completely filled photographs and over spaced photographs.
Vivian began to shoot colour photography in the 1960’s/ 70’s by shooting mainly on Kodak Ektachrome 35mm films and by using multiple different German SLR cameras. This colour work developed from being edgey and bold to becoming more abstract and creatively disguised.
Maier’s work displays obvious colour without drawing attention away from everyday life within her environment. She uses a wide aperture has been used to take away the fact that Maier wants the viewer to focus specifically on the individuals with yellow clothing so that the eye naturally focuses on the individuals themselves. It is obvious that she intends the viewers of this picture to focus on these bright colours as the majority of the photo is quite dark and displays large areas of shadow. Also within the photograph she isolates the individuals to draw attention to them whereas she shows cramped areas with too much to focus on. I enjoy Maier’s work as she displays colour in the subtle, obvious way that I intend to within my own work
