Albert Hofmann unlocked a pathway to an altered state of consciousness and experienced the powers of LSD first-hand on his infamous bicycle ride 73 years ago today. What followed was mass consumption of the drug, which ultimately lead to its prohibition for both recreational and scientific purposes. Currently, new research on the drug is emerging and recent findings show the drug’s ability to unify more parts of the brain
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providing greater potential for LSD on the treatment of patient suffering from psychiatric disorders such as depression or addiction.
Image: 10 doses of Hoffmans by Psychonaught. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.
During a lecture we watched a documentary on ‘Finding Vivian Maier’ which I found absolutely fascinating. Meier herself worked as a nanny which provided her with a roof over her head and the freedom to follow her passion of photography. However what was interesting about her was that she never revealed her images to anyone, she simply captured them and stored them.
She was born in New York on February 1 1926 and following her death on April 21 2009, many of her possessions were auctioned. John Maloof discovered boxes of her negatives while gathering images for a history book that he was writing. He bought the biggest box of negatives at the auction, later purchased the rest, and created a photo blog containing 200 images, he posted a link on Flickr which went crazy. Having googled Vivian Maier which returned no results, Maloof then set out to uncover who Vivian Maier was and her story, and also set out to get her work displayed in galleries.
His research uncovers an eccentric woman, tall, who wore dated clothing, big coats, felt hats and army boots who always carried a camera around her neck.
She was a street photographer who documented life, but not for the newspapers or to tell a story, it was for her own personal records. She recorded life and using a rolleiflex camera which was low down, like shooting from the hip in today’s comparison. This enabled her to observe society and capture people, yet remain invisible, resulting in natural shots of unguarded people.
While many photographers create and convey a sense of mystery in their work, Maier’s life was a mystery. Those who knew her regarded her as very private, insisting on heavy locks on her door, at the houses where she lived and worked as a live in nanny and housekeeper. She also adopted a french accent even though she was born in New York. She was somewhat of a recluse she had no social life, husband, children or family, her life was her work and her camera.
She was also considered to be hoarder and her rooms were always crammed from floor to ceiling with newspapers, tickets, coupons, clothes, boxes and boxes of undeveloped film. She kept so much stuff that she had to keep the majority of it in rented storage. She was obsessed with moments in time and documented everything. Her adult life was spent recording and documenting everything around her. She would take the children in her care for walks daily where she would take pictures of everything, impoverished people, someone crying, she had an eye for the strange and bazaar and recorded the bazaarness of life.
John Maloof has tirelessly worked to get her work displayed following rejections from museums, but while museums may not be accepting her work, people are. I think it’s due to the fact the images are so fascinating and also the story behind them is also intriguing and equally fascinating, which is why people are so interested in her work, which has now been exhibited in galleries across the globe.
Joel Meyrowtiz describes her work as having an understanding of people, she was a watchful observant caring person which is revealed in the images she captured.
Having watched the documentary it remains a mystery as to why she never tried to publish her work. She kept them for a purpose so that the things she photographed wouldn’t be forgotten, and now thanks to John Maloof they wont be. I feel her work displays a great awareness of her surrounding environment which is useful for me to study so that I become aware of the surroundings when capturing my environmental portraits.
