The big picture: Vivian Maier’s backseat daisies

Often, Maier does appear reflected in her photographs – usually staring at some point above the lens, blank-faced and inscrutable – but not in this case. The car’s rear-view and side mirrors reveal only snatches of red leather upholstery. The driver’s seat is empty. The back seats are as well, except for a line-up of daisies, their heads peering curiously over the backrests as though they too are wondering about the woman taking their picture.

The story of how Maier’s work was rescued from obscurity around the time of her death in 2009 is by now a familiar one. A locker full of her negatives, prints and film rolls was seized after she fell behind on rent. The contents were auctioned off and one of the buyers, John Maloof, ended up owning most of her 140,000-plus negatives and prints. Maloof co-directed the 2013 documentary Finding Vivian Maier, which was nominated for an Oscar, and her work has been widely exhibited since then – the latest outing has just opened at Ira Stehmann gallery in Munich.

But for all the attention and scrutiny – of her tumultuous childhood between New York and France, of her decades working as a nanny in Chicago – Maier has remained elusive. Probably, given how private she was during her lifetime, she’d have preferred it that way.

She showed little intention of ever sharing her work. Even her employers, who saw her setting out with cameras around her neck and their children in tow, knew nothing of the photos she took.

But does it really matter, when the work is so gloriously alive, so full of acuity and wit, that its creator eludes our grasp?

Maier may be absent from this particular Chicago street scene but, like the daisies peeking out from the back seat, her warmth and sense of humour are plain to see. 

Myth in the Shadows – The Eye of Vivian Maier is at Ira Stehmann Fine Art in Munich, until 15 January 2026

Photograph © Estate of Vivian Maier / Courtesy Maloof Collection, Ira Stehmann Fine Art, Munich & Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY