John Maloof bought a box full of undeveloped negatives at an auction for $380. There were 30,000 negatives inside. After he developed them and saw the beautiful photographs, John began his mission to find out who the photographer was. When he found her name in one of the boxes, he did a search and found her obituary. Vivian Maier had died a few days before at the age of 83. John did some more searching and her life story started to unfold. Vivian worked as a nanny and on her days off she carried a camera with her everywhere she went. Photography was her passion, but no one knew until John discovered her.
Vivian’s pictures gained international attention with exhibitions of her photographs in London, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Oslo and Hamburg. There has been more interest in her work than any other photographer. John Maloof is the chief curator of Vivian Maier’s work and editor of the book *Vivian Maier: Street Photographer*. *Finding Vivian Maier* is his directorial debut and will be released this month.