The Museo del Genio (Historical and Cultural Institute of the Corps of Engineers) in Rome could not have chosen a better occasion to reopen its doors to the general public. From 31 October 2025 to 15 February 2026, it hosts an exhibition dedicated to Vivian Maier, one of the greatest “street photographers” from the last century. The exhibition unfolds as a journey between New York and Chicago, whose vibrant neighborhoods, captured by Maier’s lens, stand as the undisputed protagonists.
Vivian Maier, “Armenian woman fighting on East 86th Street”, New York, NY, September 1956. Gelatin silver print, 2012, 40×50 cm, © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof. Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY
Born in New York in 1926 to an Austrian father and a French mother, Vivian Maier spent much of her childhood in the French countryside, between Saint-Julien and Saint-Bonnet-en-Champsaur. After her parents’ separation, at the age of twelve she moved back to New York with her mother and brother. It was during her adolescence that the passion which would accompany her throughout her life was born and took shape: photography. Numerous acquaintances, both French and American, recall Vivian with a camera around her neck from a very young age; however, it was only in 1951, after the sale of the family estate in France, that she was able to purchase a professional one, the Rolleiflex TLR (on display in the exhibition). Back in New York, she began to immortalize countless scenes of everyday life, devoting herself to street photography.
Vivian Maier, “Untilted”, September 1961. Gelatin silver print, 2020, 40×50 cm, © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof. Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY
It was in the streets of suburban neighborhoods that she found most of her subjects, whose colorful expressions she silently captured in the instant before they noticed her, thanks to the faithful Rolleiflex held close to her chest. During this period, she worked as a nanny for several American families and, during long walks through the chaotic city, portrayed people from all social backgrounds, favoring the lower classes, on the margins of the American Dream, whose habits she narrated through her lens. In 1956 she moved to Chicago, near Lake Michigan, where she worked for the Gensburg family, with whom she would remain connected for many years. Here she also began experimenting with color photography, and her artistic language increasingly merged with a cinematic one, managing to encapsulate, through lightning-fast close-ups, the fleeting movement of the scenes she captured. The exhibition, which brings together more than 200 photographs, allows visitors to approach the different phases of Maier’s work: from the many portraits set in 1950s New York, to winter landscapes (and beyond) captured with a refined technical eye; from extremely intense and distinctive self-portraits, to a growing interest in detailed close-ups of various objects – shoes, newspapers, hats, garments – as well as natural elements such as flowers, trees and lakes.
Vivian Maier, “Central Park”, New York, NY, September 26, 1959. Gelatin silver print, 1959, 25,3×20,4 cm, © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY
In the New York period, presented in the first room, we encounter Vivian at street corners, hidden among the crowd, turning her camera toward women in fur coats, men in work suits and top hats, carefree children at play, and, quite often, toward some endearing elderly figures. From these characters she captures their naturalness and the serenity of their ordinary activities, through snapshots that do not intrude upon their lives but silently draw close to them. What matters is attempting to seize those moments that go unnoticed amid the city’s frenetic rhythm – that background murmur shared by the lives of millions, yet remaining indecipherable. Moving through the liveliest and most youthful neighborhoods, Vivian photographs couples in love, preserving the vibrancy and complicity of their gazes, often choosing to highlight certain details, such as hands briefly touching or an arm encircling a waist. Every gesture immortalized, in a delicate balance between shyness and exuberance, allows us to approach the unspoken and mysterious stories of these individuals, whose emotional density can be sensed. It is precisely the impossibility of unveiling them that makes them compelling, ensuring that looking at them is never banal.
Vivian Maier, “New York”, NY, October 18, 1953. Gelatin silver print, 2012, 40×50 cm, © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY
In the section devoted to color photographs – mostly from her Chicago years between the 1960s and 1970s – Maier’s favored settings are working-class neighborhoods, public parks and various beaches, where she spent much time with children, accompanied by her new Leica 35mm, also on display. Each color conveys different sensations, making it almost possible to feel the intensity of the atmosphere and to hear the voices of the bustling city. One of the most evocative sections of the exhibition is dedicated to her self-portraits, and is also particularly intriguing from the point of view of photographic composition. In almost all of these images, especially those from the New York period, Maier skillfully exploits the interplay of light and shadow created by the mirrors in front of which she portrays herself, turning her face according to the chiaroscuro effect she wishes to achieve. Most of these are set in the street; shop windows often reflect her image in work clothes, always impeccably neat. Her expressions, like those of the people she photographed, appear mysterious, momentarily deceiving us into thinking we can grasp something of her personality, which nevertheless remains enclosed in unreadable gazes. Already in the 1970s and 1980s, her self-portraits become even more enigmatic, often showing only the shadow of her figure accompanied by a few objects. It is toward the end of Maier’s life that her photography begins to darken, reflecting her difficult psychological condition. Shots of objects become increasingly frequent, photographed in compulsive manner. Toward the late 1980s she began to suffer from a hoarding disorder, which led her to become increasingly isolated until her death in 2009. All of her images – more than 120,000 – despite her various attempts to make photography her profession, some of which were never even developed, remained unknown throughout her lifetime. It was only in 2007 that history student and photography enthusiast John Maloof purchased at auction a series of rolls and negatives stored in a Chicago warehouse, thus giving new life to her work.
Vivian Maier, “Self-Portrait”, New York, NY, 1953. Gelatin silver print, 2012, 40×50 cm, © Estate of Vivian Maier, Courtesy of Maloof Collection and Howard Greenberg Gallery, NY
Although some sources have described Maier as detached and cold, it is impossible not to notice the intensity with which Vivian approached the scenes she chose to immortalize. One cannot help but wonder whether such an all-consuming passion was nothing more than an attempt to reduce the distance between herself and others. It is as if she spent her entire life trying to piece together the puzzle of reality, striving to understand its enigma; perhaps it was precisely her condition as an ordinary person that allowed her to see what others could not. Observing these photographs and walking through the exhibition rooms, however, one never has the impression that Vivian was merely a simple nanny. Instead, one finds oneself listening to a multifaceted symphony that springs directly from the urban and the ordinary, in which every scene lived and narrated, every distinctive detail, every personal emotion contributes to enriching the sonic composition, returning to us a peculiar portrait of pulsating urban life – a unique and profoundly human image of reality.
Giulia Minenna
Info:
Vivian Maier. “The Exhibition”
A cura di Anne Morin
31/10/2025 – 15/02/2026
Istituto storico e di cultura dell’arma del Genio
Lungotevere della Vittoria 31, Roma
www.arthemisia.it
is a contemporary art magazine since 1980
NO COMMENT