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Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#21

Post by kirubakaran »

jonsen wrote: post #14
edw519 wrote: post #7

Maier was untrained, but her images are artfully framed and detailed So much has been accomplished by those who were "untrained, but". I wonder if that says as much about the training as it does about the accomplishments.

It reminds me of the sculptor who said that he wasn't making the sculpture. "It's already in there. I'm just removing excess material." Sometimes I feel that our brains are like that. That some of our abilities are inherent. They just have to be set free.

Problem is, search space is too big

http://www.paulgraham.com/ideas.html [Section: 'Problems']

( embarrassed to admit I probably have a complete cross reference of his essays in my brain :) )

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#22

Post by joe_the_user »

The headline makes me think.

The article admits that we know virtually nothing about Vivian Maier. There is nothing that implies her life was "lost" in her eyes, nothing to prove that she lived differently than she would have liked to have lived. her work was nearly lost to the glare of publicity but would have been our loss, not hers.

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#23

Post by msg »

joe_the_user wrote: post #22

The headline makes me think. The article admits that we know virtually nothing about Vivian Maier. There is nothing that implies her life was "lost" in her eyes, nothing to prove that she lived differently than she would have liked to have lived. her work was nearly lost to the glare of publicity but would have been our loss, not hers.

It is ambiguous: "a lost (life's work)" is the intended interpretation.

"rediscovered" is more like it.

Of course you could talk about "a (rediscovered life)'s work" in an interesting way too...

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#24

Post by thrdOriginal »

Tycho wrote: post #13
pavlov wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's the point of philosophy? (photographical question)

I just said 'philosphical question' so I wouldn't get downvoted for sounding cynical. Are you saying it is impossible to verbalize the 'point' of photography? Regardless, sometimes photographs capture remarkable events or spectacular scenes, in which cases the point could be easily understood as 'seeing things you would have liked to have seen but didn't get the chance' Now in this here collection, almost all the pho…

So really you're asking "what's the point of art?" You could do worse than starting by reading "Art" by Clive Bell.

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#25

Post by harbinjer »

jonsen wrote: post #14
edw519 wrote: post #7

Maier was untrained, but her images are artfully framed and detailed So much has been accomplished by those who were "untrained, but". I wonder if that says as much about the training as it does about the accomplishments.

It reminds me of the sculptor who said that he wasn't making the sculpture. "It's already in there. I'm just removing excess material." Sometimes I feel that our brains are like that. That some of our abilities are inherent. They just have to be set free.

Sounds like a Michaelangelo quote.

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#26

Post by InclinedPlane »

ja27 wrote: post #19

In other discussions I've seen people raise the copyright issues. Her estate owns the rights to these works, not John Maloof. But I don't think anyone except her heirs or other beneficiaries would have standing to sue him. They're either non-existent (she had no known children) or not interested. I'm afraid that won't stop people from causing problems for him once there's money involved.

I don't see how there could be much legal standing for that position. If Maloof bought the original negatives and especially if the Meier estate has not retained any copies of the work then he's got an enormously strong case to having bought not just a copy of the work but the work itself and the rights to distribute it.

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#27

Post by Tycho »

thrdOriginal wrote: post #24
Tycho wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I just said 'philosphical question' so I wouldn't get downvoted for sounding cynical. Are you saying it is impossible to verbalize the 'point' of photography? Regardless, sometimes photographs capture remarkable events or spectacular scenes, in which cases the point could be easily understood as 'seeing things you would have liked to have seen but didn't get the chance' Now in this here collection, almost all the pho…

So really you're asking "what's the point of art?" You could do worse than starting by reading "Art" by Clive Bell.

I don't think it comes to that. My working definition of art is 'human creativity in matters beyond functional necessity' - and the point (ideally) would be to selectively present phenomena/experience for the betterment of the audience.

Here black and white images of everyday urban life have been selected as subject matter. Why? (obviously the images are well framed, but is that all there is to this art? Mechanical_Fish's answer above is reasonable, though)

Re: Vivian Maier: A life's work seen for first time

#30

Post by jolhoeft »

jonsen wrote: post #14
edw519 wrote: post #7

Maier was untrained, but her images are artfully framed and detailed So much has been accomplished by those who were "untrained, but". I wonder if that says as much about the training as it does about the accomplishments.

It reminds me of the sculptor who said that he wasn't making the sculpture. "It's already in there. I'm just removing excess material." Sometimes I feel that our brains are like that. That some of our abilities are inherent. They just have to be set free.

I sculpt in stone as a hobby. I'd heard that quote, or variations of it, before I started, and just regarded it as a clever quip artists make. Not really a reflection of the process of carving, which would be much more detailed and painstaking. I was surprised to discover just how true, for me anyway, that quote is.
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