Interest is growing in the street photography of Vivian Maier, and a current exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center, “Finding Vivian Maier: Chicago Street Photographer,” is a chance to explore it in person, through early April 2011. To summarize from the terrific blog/website Vivian Maier – Her Discovered Work: Maier was a street photographer from the 1950s to 1990s, whose work was discovered by photographer John Maloof at an auction in Chicago where she resided most of her life. (She was a nanny to Phil Donahue, among others!) Her discovered work included over 100,000 mostly medium-format negatives, thousands of prints and countless undeveloped rolls of film. A quick link to the unfolding mystery can be found here.

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I found the Cultural Center exhibit to be good (it includes a mix of Chicago scenes as well as a lot of New York City and global work), but was hoping it would be in the more expansive upstairs gallery. Still, great to see her getting recognition, and terrific to see which prints were selected and to see their flow and juxtaposition. A number of the pieces selected instantly made me smile, wonder, and consider my own photography and curating in a new light – just what you want an artist and an exhibit to do. (And yes, on a different scale, this is what last year’s Cartier-Bresson exhibit did for me at the Art Institute.)

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I also wonder how many viewers might be temporarily confused, at least, by the juxtaposition of this exhibit against work by unrelated photographers in adjoining galleries. Presence of signage is a challenge for distinguishing all the work on this floor, I think. Don’t mean to overly criticize as we know the Cultural Center, and arts in the city in general, is dealing with big budget cutbacks these days. (On the plus side: the exhibit that is currently housed in the upstairs gallery is a knockout: don’t miss Violence, Women and Art. I hope to blog on that separately later.)

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A side note: a Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for a documentary on her work has exceeded its goal of $20,000 and now stands at more than $81,000. (And no wonder! 300 lucky early sponsors got this great offer: “You’ll receive one of Vivian Maier’s actual film spools from a roll that has been developed. Comes with authenticity paperwork from the collection.”) Check out the Kickstarter campaign here.

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