Vivian Maier's Chicago - An exhibit now being featured at the Chicago History Museum

See Chicago through the eyes of Vivian Maier and witness the life work of a photographer who wowed the world with breathtaking images of everyday life in urban America. Maier’s Chicago collection will be presented at larger than life scale vividly documenting Chicago neighborhoods and faces of the 1960s and 70s.

Vivian Maier was born in New York City in 1926, but spent much of her life travelling to places like Egypt, Bangkok, Italy, and the American Southwest with camera in tow. In 1956 she settled in Chicago, where she remained until her death in 2009. She spent her adult life as a nanny to a series of North Shore families, and devoted her free time and money to her passion, photography.

Images for Vivian Maier’s Chicago come from the Jeffrey Goldstein collection (Vivian Maier Prints Inc.) Acquired in 2010, the Goldstein collection includes over 15,000 negatives, 1,000 prints, 30 homemade movies, and numerous slides. They document Vivian’s European years prior to her early 1950s stay in New York continuing through her Chicago years from 1955 into the early 1970s.

*Also see the WTTW Chicago Tonight 3-part special series on Vivian Maier's Chicago*