Well, I’m kind of the pretender to the throne, so to speak, this week, setting the artists challenge, but sitting in for @kali who won the Jerry Uelsmann artist challenge #52, with her beautiful picture “Untitled!”.
It’s been an extremely difficult decision deciding which photographer to choose, having changed my mind on several occasions during the last few days. However, after seeing her photographs, and especially after reading her story, I have eventually decided that for the Artist Challenge #53, the photographer will be Vivian Maier (February 1, 1926 – April 21, 2009), an American street photographer born in New York.
Vivian’s amazing story really began when John Maloof, a young historian and collector, bought a trunk in an auction in New York for $380. The trunk contained tens of thousands of negatives and over 700 rolls of undeveloped colour film of a then completely unknown woman called Vivian Maier. (Mr Maloof has subsequently accumulated approximately 150,000 of her negatives). The story that then slowly unfolded was the story of a children’s nannie who had spent her entire adult life taking the most amazing and beautiful photographs, usually on her day off, and had kept them all to herself, rarely, if ever, showing anyone any her amazing work. Her body of work mainly consists of street photography and street portraits, but there are also a large number of self-portraits. Vivian died in 2009, completely unknown to the world, yet only four years later prints of her work are now selling for over $1,800 each, with some of her original prints selling for in excess of $5,000.
“Distinctly solitary and driven by private motivations, Vivian Maier was a natural-born photographer who captured extraordinary images of her subjects and, in doing so, revealed the essence of Americana.” VivianMaierPrints.Com
So the challenge is to take a photograph in the (BLACK & WHITE) style of Vivian Maier. The beauty of this challenge is that there is something for everyone, because whilst Vivian’s work was predominantly street photography, and street portraits, of strangers, she also took a large number of self-portraits. So even if you don’t want to adventure into the world of street photography, there’s that extra option available. AND, even if you don’t like taking photographs of strangers, OR yourself, Vivian took lots of photographs of her own shadow in her street photography, so unless you’re, quite literally, scared of your own shadow, there’s yet another option.
For those of you who have never participated in the Artist’s challenge, it is fairly straightforward. You can either recreate one of Vivian’s existing photographs, or even better, use the look and feel of her work to inspire you to take a photograph in her style, and try and capture the range of emotions and pathos, that Vivian captured in her work and imbues in the viewers of her work.
The challenge starts today Friday May 24, and goes through until a week on Sunday, June the 2nd at 11:59pm (GMT).
You can also post any work you are using to participate in the challenge on this thread.
*** PHOTOGRAPHS MUST BE TAKEN ON THE DAY OF POSTING ***
Looking forward to seeing all your wonderful photographs, from ALL the 365 Project artists!
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*** IMPORTANT: Tag your photos ‘ac-maier’ ***
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I’ll add a complete tag list just as soon as I’ve figured out how to do it!
(Edit: I figured it out and I've just posted the tag list below).
No, sorry @bobfoto and @northy, you were doing it right, I was formatting the links wrong, and still can't figure out how to do it, so I've removed the links and its back to the good old days, as you said, of copy & paste :-)
I'm tagging you if you've participated in Artists Challenges before, or you were already on the list. If you know anyone who you think would like this challenge, or your not on the list and want to be in the future, please let them or me know and I'll add them to the list to be forwarded for future challenges.
Brilliant pick @darrellburnett !!!!! Such an incredible and frustrating story. It makes me sad when people become famous after they pass. What an amazing legacy to leave and bravo to the lucky man who found these treasures and is doing all of the work to share. I can't wait to get started channelling Vivian Maier. Such beautiful and intriguing work she has. Great pick:)
REALLY pleased you like my choice @colie. I actually read about her a few months ago (yes, it is an incredible, frustrating and sad story), and had decided against choosing her initially, only because I know street photography is a kind of minority interest of photography, but then I thought about all her self portraits and the shadow pictures, and figured that whilst I personally love her street photography, there was something to interest and entice anybody, and hopefully, everybody!
@darrellburnett Thanks for the tag Darrell. I haven't done much street photography per se, and I'm definitely NOT into selfies but I do love shadows- so we'll see what turns up!
Thanks for introducing Vivian to us, I had no idea about her at all. What a fantastic find and what an inspiring photographer. I love mysterious people. I shall do my best to channel her, but she lived in an amazing city during a very interesting time. I suppose folk looking back on our time may think the same someday. Looking forward to seeing the submissions!
@olivetreeann Indeed it is. It's actually in 'Post Production' so I think we should send them a petition to get their finger out and get it finished!
@harley84 glad you like it and looking forward to seeing your submission.
@kali66 REALLY glad you approve, particularly as I'm kind of doing it in your name. It was much more of a challenge doing a challenge, than I had envisaged!
@silverlight I too fell for the whole mystery of her amazing story. One of the people who knew here said that she would have absolutely hated all the exposure (photography pun not intended!) her work has been given. I'd have lapped it up with a spoon :-)
@darrellburnett If possible can you add me to the AC tag? I was left off it and am now feeling very sad I did not see this sooner, (it's been a very crazy week). hoping I can still get something in for the challenge. I love everything that has been posted so far!
Hi @sunshinephoto5, I was going to add you, but if you look "@sunshinephoto5" is already in the list. Sorry you didn't get the tagged message. Maybe if other people did OR didn't receive the message, they could leave a quick yes or no here, just to give some idea if there's a small or big problem.
@darrellburnett LOL! thanks for looking, I looked twice and did not see it. on some of the other tags recently the o was left out, so those i definitely did not get. Thanks again!
Apologies for the long delay in responding, but I am away from home, out in the sticks, with very limited access to modern technology (oh the peace!), which is also why I haven't had chance to upload any pictures in a few days.
Anyway, I don't have any problem with this competition being decided by a preferential voting system (1,2,3 etc), my problem lies in the fact that this is the first competition I have run (and strictly speaking, I'm not even the ancestral heir, so to speak) and I just don't feel particularly comfortable making a unilateral decision to change what is obviously a long tried & tested voting system (unless I've missed something, I can't find any of the competitions that have been decided in any other way). I would much rather the decision to change the voting system were to be made after maybe someone makes the suggestion in a discussion thread, and if the voting system is to be changed it is changed only after that discussion has reached some form of consensus.
My own personal thought, for what it is worth, is that whilst a preferential voting system makes sense in some ways, the downside is that the higher number of people's favourites you are highlighting, the more obvious you are also highlighting your least favourites.
Don't know if @colie can please offer any guidance on Jason's question?
I'm not back home until Tuesday lunchtime, so I am happy to wait until then (or after) to decide on, and 'publish' the final pictures for voting.
@darrellburnett I think you bring up a good point Darrell. Although it is an interesting idea and the decision is ultimately up to the host I sort of feel like being chose for the top 5 or 6 should be a a fun honor not ruined by feeling the least popular out of those 5 or 6. I mean if we were winning a big money prize or something I could see putting more effort into a 1st 2nd 3rd order but again this is just my opinion :) It's always tough to pick a favorite because we like different things about different images but you can always write really nice comments or fav the ones you would choose for 2nd and 3rd
@darrellburnett@colie - very well answered and I concur. My original request was because I was starting to struggle to find only one fave. I want to vote for them all!
@darrellburnett - don't envy you there Darrell... If I were the host, you'd have the first comp where voters would have the choice of 30 pics to choose from.
@bobfoto haha very unweildly, if you have ever hosted a challenge like this you will know that it is simpler to just pick a few entries for people to vote on to select the next host for the challenge. Looking forward to the vote Darrell, it will be interesting to see which ones you pick.
Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful contributions, and for all contributing to a couple of sleepless nights! I have finally selected the five final pictures and you can now view and vote HERE!
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@harley84 glad you like it and looking forward to seeing your submission.
@kali66 REALLY glad you approve, particularly as I'm kind of doing it in your name. It was much more of a challenge doing a challenge, than I had envisaged!
@silverlight I too fell for the whole mystery of her amazing story. One of the people who knew here said that she would have absolutely hated all the exposure (photography pun not intended!) her work has been given. I'd have lapped it up with a spoon :-)
Here's my first attempt to imitate the "spy" of the 1950's
Having a go
Apologies for the long delay in responding, but I am away from home, out in the sticks, with very limited access to modern technology (oh the peace!), which is also why I haven't had chance to upload any pictures in a few days.
Anyway, I don't have any problem with this competition being decided by a preferential voting system (1,2,3 etc), my problem lies in the fact that this is the first competition I have run (and strictly speaking, I'm not even the ancestral heir, so to speak) and I just don't feel particularly comfortable making a unilateral decision to change what is obviously a long tried & tested voting system (unless I've missed something, I can't find any of the competitions that have been decided in any other way). I would much rather the decision to change the voting system were to be made after maybe someone makes the suggestion in a discussion thread, and if the voting system is to be changed it is changed only after that discussion has reached some form of consensus.
My own personal thought, for what it is worth, is that whilst a preferential voting system makes sense in some ways, the downside is that the higher number of people's favourites you are highlighting, the more obvious you are also highlighting your least favourites.
Don't know if @colie can please offer any guidance on Jason's question?
I'm not back home until Tuesday lunchtime, so I am happy to wait until then (or after) to decide on, and 'publish' the final pictures for voting.
@darrellburnett