Vivian Maier captures images of the street but also makes sure that there are people in the background, whether the people were aware they were being photographed or not. These images are quite like William Klein’s as they capture the natural beauty of the streets, not just what objects are seen but the people as well. Although William Klein’s photos are based on the way people are dressed and their style, he liked to use the streets as his studio. Whereas Vivian Maier is more observant on what people are doing, her images tend to be less staged where people are doing normal activities but notice the camera and stop what they are doing midway through. Her images tend to focus on and or two people and each image holds different emotions. Her images are black and white which helps to lend a timeless quality to her photographs, allowing the viewer to focus on the subject matter and composition. I feel that her images being in black and white makes the images stop in time, almost as if that moment is stuck forever, although all images are a representation of the past and can never be lived again, Maier photos make me believe that the moment she captured is forever gone, her images are quite nostalgic. The black and white effect usually makes the image hold emotions such as happiness, sadness or confusion. it also can depict the passage of time or the changing of seasons. Possibly a major event happened before or after these images were taken, which makes them look strange in way that there is something else happening in the image, but we don’t know, we can only see a small section of the image. Her images were taken in New York city and Chicago, which helps to make the image look very busy, she found a good surrounding to take her images with all the other citizens walking around minding their own business. Vivian Maier also used the Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex (TLR) camera which was quite discreet and not many people would notice it unless they paid specific attention to it. It was a waist-level camera, and most people would tend to look at Vivian and not notice the camera and that is ow she managed to capture her images. 

Vivian sadly passed away therefore doesn’t own her own images, A Chicago collector, John Maloof oversaw Vivian’s photos, and his mission was to promote the work of Vivian Maier, and to safeguard the archive for the benefit of future generations. Vivian also kept every negative she had ever shot; she believed that they were important and could be useful in the future. As Maier had passed away, her photos were published, her images were found at a local thrift auction house on Chicago’s Northwest side in 2007, where John had visited to find material for the book up for auction and instead, he found a box of negatives depicting Chicago on the 60’s. Although she wasn’t known when she was alive as she worked as a professional nanny for more than 40 years, during which she secretly took more than 150,000 photographs. her photographs were only revealed in July 2008 by Slattery; however, they don’t really get much notice until October 2009 when Maloof linked his blog to a selection of Maier’s photographs on the image-sharing website, that’s when her work became viral with thousands of people expressing interest. Although Maloof owns about 90% of Maier’s work another man named Jeffrey Goldstein a Chicago-based collector, also began to amass a collection of Maier’s works.  Maloof and Goldstein’s ownership was, however, legally limited.