LOS ANGELES, CA.- KP Projects Gallery is presenting a new exhibition of modern silver gelatin prints and chromogenic color prints by Vivian Maier entitled Self & Street. The exhibition begins with 23 thoughtfully poised self portraits which are innovative in technique, the majority of which have never been shown in Los Angeles. Alongside scenes from cities in which Maier lived and visited, each image reveals time and place where the artist worked primarily as a nanny. Taking pictures that eventually amassed into an archive of 150,000 negatives, transparencies, prints and rolls of undeveloped film, Maiers images from decades ago tell us as much about the past as they do the present.
Striving to disentangle the political and societal struggles of the time, Vivian Maier recognized class and gender structures put upon the disenfranchised. Capturing people and places commonly overlooked by society, the artist uncovered a profound beauty below the surface of ideological constructs.
As renowned photographer Joel Meyerowitz put it, Maier was a quick study of human nature, of the unfolding moment, the flash of a gesture, or the mood of a facial expression brief events that turned the quotidian life of the street into a revelation for her.
Despite being virtually unknown to the public during her lifetime, Vivian Maiers allure endures as scholars and admirers continue to piece together details of her life. She is now considered to be one of the most important photographers of the 20th Century spawning comparisons to masters Diane Arbus, Helen Levitt, Lisette Model, Walker Evans, and Weegee, amongst others.
Numerous articles have been written about Maier's work in The Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times, American Photo,Town and Country and countless other publications.
Maiers photographs, and all that has and may happen to them, remind us of all that can and cannot be anticipated or controlled. They are evidence of countless ways photography gave her - and gives each of us - a sense of self, agency, and a legacy. Vivian Maiers photographs fascinate not only because we see her world through her eyes, but also because they give us such a vivid sense of what it is that artists, and the rest of us, need, see, and live for." - Marvin Heiferman from the monograph Vivian Maier A Photographer Found by Harper Collins