The exhibition “Vivian Maier. Street Photographer” at Deutsche Börse’s headquarters, displays more than 140 works and provides a comprehensive insight into the extraordinary photographic work that the artist has created with a visual language that is both individual and timeless. The exhibition is a cooperation between diChroma photography, Madrid, and the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation.
 
For more than four decades, Vivian Maier (1926–2009) worked as a nanny for various families in New York and Chicago. During this time and afterwards, she photographed incessantly: street scenes, portraits, still lifes and landscapes. When she died in 2009, her legacy included over 120,000 negatives, numerous super 8 and 16mm films, as well as various audio recordings and photographic prints. Throughout her lifetime, her images remained unnoticed by the public. It was only in 2007 that a young historian discovered, rather by chance, her extensive life’s work, most of which Maier had deposited in a warehouse.

Maier knew how to capture her surroundings in snapshots that tell of the beauty of everyday life and about the special moments in the seemingly banal. On her forays, she was always on the lookout for the unnoticed and the elusive, which she usually captured in extraordinary compositions. Her work centres above all around the brief encounters with strangers she met in public. Although she often photographed them at close range, her point of view remains predominantly a distanced one and is chosen from a position where she prevailed unnoticed by her protagonists. She counters this invisibility, however, with innumerable self-portraits that she created all over the city and for which she also selected unusual perspectives: a shadow on the floor, a silhouette in a shop window or a reflection in an object. With a kind of passion for the act of photographing that is close to obsession, Maier turned the street into her theatre, where every gesture seemed to have more meaning than the image that emerged from it.

On the occasion of the exhibition, the film “Finding Vivian Maier” will be shown in cooperation with the Arthouse Cinemas Frankfurt on 18 October 2022 at 18:30 and on 20 November 2022 at 12:00, at Cinéma, Frankfurt/Main. It traces the story of the discovery and life of the American photographer and provides exciting background information. Following the screening on 18 October, Anne-Marie Beckmann and Alexandra König from the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation will give a brief introduction to the life and work of Vivian Maier. Tickets are available via www.arthouse-kinos.de.

Information for visitors: 

The exhibition is on display until 15 January 2023. Admission is free. It can be visited on the “Open Saturdays” on 19 November 2022 and 14 January 2023, from 11:00 to 16:00, without prior appointment. In addition, we offer the visit as part of guided tours with prior registration at www.deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org. Special appointments for individual groups (10–20 persons) can be arranged by e-mail: foundation@deutsche-boerse.com.

Address: The Cube, Mergenthalerallee 61, 65760 Eschborn

About the Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation 
The Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation is a non-profit organisation based in Frankfurt/Main that is dedicated to collecting, exhibiting and promoting contemporary photography. It is responsible for the further development and presentation of the Art Collection Deutsche Börse, which now comprises over 2,200 photographic works by around 150 artists from 30 nations. In its exhibition space in Eschborn near Frankfurt/Main, it shows several exhibitions a year that are open to the public. Supporting young artists is a particular concern of the foundation, which promotes them in many ways: with awards, scholarships or through participation in the talent programme of the Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam Foam. Together with the Photographers’ Gallery in London, it awards the renowned Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation Prize every year. Furthermore, the foundation supports exhibition projects of international museums and institutions as well as the development of platforms for academic dialogue and research on the medium of photography.
Deutsche Börse Photography Foundation (deutscheboersephotographyfoundation.org)