An analysis of the documentary Finding Vivien Meyer, which tells the story of how the hidden film of a French-born street photographer named Vivien Meyer was accidentally discovered at an auction, and how her secret life and artistic world came to light. Highlights include director John Maloof’s exploration of Meyer’s life, the emotions of bringing her photographs to light, the art world’s reaction, and the film’s features as a participatory documentary.

The plot of Finding Vivian Meyer

Who is Viviane Meier, the genius photographer whose work has never been seen before? In Search of Viviane Meier is a documentary film about French-born street photographer Viviane Meier. From the time director John Maloof accidentally purchased a box of Maier’s undeveloped film rolls at auction for $380 in 2007 for a history book, to the process of developing, printing, and disseminating them, the film traces the life of the enigmatic photographer who never shared her photographs with the public until her death in 2009.

All John Maloof knew about the film was that the auction house told him the photographer’s name was “Vivian Maier.” When a search on the internet turned up nothing, he scanned a portion of the film and posted it on Flickr. Vivian Meyer’s photographs were met with enthusiasm by many netizens who, like Vivian Meyer, took photos with square frames and posted them on Instagram. Famed photographer and critic Alan Sekula advised John Maloof not to sell the photo, but to learn more about the artist first. The more he was fascinated by Vivian Maier’s photographs, the more he wanted to know about who she was, so he decided to make a documentary film about his quest to find out who took these amazing pictures.

The director develops and prints all her photos and organizes her belongings one by one, looking for clues. He discovers that she spent most of her life as a nanny, caring for the children of wealthy families and taking photographs of them. He also learns that she was a paranoid collector of newspapers and ‘facts’. The director conducted numerous interviews with people who knew her or had contact with her, and pieced together stories from people around the world. He met around 100 people who had contact with Meyer, all of whom remembered her unique style and secretive nature: she always wore a large coat and felt hat, stood over six feet tall, wore men’s shirts, and always had a camera around her neck. According to those who knew her, Vivian Meyer hid her full name and introduced herself as “Viv,” “Miss Smith,” “Vivian,” and to some, “the spy. These diverse memories create a portrait of an enigmatic and solitary artist.
Although there were many different opinions about her origins, it turns out that Vivian Meyer was born in New York City in 1926 and used a fake accent. She was extremely reluctant to have her private life made public, and remained a mysterious figure, even to her neighbor of ten years.
Viviane Meyer was extremely private during her life, but after her death, she was thrust into the media spotlight, sparking a worldwide exhibition frenzy. Those who knew her say she would not have wanted the world’s attention on her photographs. In the middle of the film, the director explores Meyer’s life and admits that in bringing her out into the open, “I felt a little uncomfortable and guilty. It’s a challenge to make a documentary because you’re exposing the work of someone who doesn’t want to be exposed,” he says.
But the director believes that discovering an artist can be a very important thing, and the film enters a new phase. A letter is found in Meyer’s hometown that contains her thoughts on photography. She left a letter to a photo studio with her film and the words, “I hope you will let me know what you think of me.” The letter shows that she wanted to share her work with others, and was an important clue to the documentary’s valuable discoveries and observations. “Vivian knew she was a good photographer, and she knew these photos were good. She wanted to show them to people. It was a magical thing that didn’t happen in her lifetime, but we’re doing it now,” he says.
The director is also adamant that her work is not yet recognized by the established art world. “Good art is good art, and really good art is recognized,” she says, citing the examples of Gary Winogrand and Eugene Atje.
The second half of the film focuses on the inner, human side of Vivian Meyer. We hear from the children, now adults, about her darker side as a human being, her hatred of men who talked about the stupidity of humanity, and her cruelty to the children she cared for. Through these stories, the director concludes the movie by defining his own meaning of the question, “What kind of person was Maier?”

Analyzing the work from a documentary perspective

‘Searching for Vivian Maier’ is an intriguing detective story about the search for the mysterious photographer ‘Vivian Maier’ who left behind 150,000 unidentified films with no name or profession. The search for Vivian Meyer, who left behind a treasure trove of photographs that have never been released to the public, goes beyond the usual biographical documentary genre. Director Charlie Siskel, who directed Finding Vivian Meyer with John Maloof, uses his background in comedy in documentaries and TV dramas to add a dramatic edge to the search for Vivian Meyer. “She’s an incredible character,” he says of Vivian Meyer. She’s like something out of a novel, but she’s a real person. And most of all, she was a true artist,” he says fondly. As a result of John Maloof and Charlie Siskel’s dogged pursuit and labor of love, Finding Vivien Meyer was nominated for both the British and American Academy Awards in 2015, creating a global buzz.
“I wanted to take audiences on a journey to uncover Vivien Meyer’s identity,” says John Maloof, explaining that the more the veil was lifted during filming, the more questions arose: “Why did she hide her photographs and her personal life from others? Who was she really?” Thanks to John Maloof’s efforts, the photographs, which would otherwise have been buried in obscurity, made their way to New York, Chicago, and Europe. Along with bringing Meyer’s photographs to the outside world, John Maloof searches through her life to uncover the secrets of her aesthetic that penetrates to the core of things and people.
The film is a participatory documentary in which the director boldly speaks and acts in front of the camera to express his own thoughts and intentions. The director himself appears as the protagonist of the film as he searches for Meyer’s film, starting with how he came to discover her film and continuing to show his appearance until the end of the film. In particular, the director explains that he felt “a little uncomfortable and guilty” as he delved into Meyer’s life and brought her out of the shadows. I felt a little uncomfortable and guilty about exposing the work of someone who didn’t want to be exposed,” he says of the challenges of making the documentary. Meyer’s letter resolves some of these concerns, and the director’s words show what a valuable discovery the documentary was. In addition, the director’s bitterness towards the art world’s refusal to recognize her work is evident for over 10 minutes, and you can feel the compulsion and tenacity of the two directors, which is one of the advantages of participatory documentaries. Of course, participatory documentaries have the disadvantage of the director’s authority and intervention, but I feel that this method was more effective because the director was the one who discovered Vivian Maier.

While watching Finding Vivian Maier, you will not only be amazed at her sharp and humorous way of looking at people, objects, and society, but also admire her passion for her dream of photography, which she never gave up despite her circumstances. Vivian Meyer was interested in the underbelly of society, including race, politics, and privilege, and she captured them in an unapologetic and unbiased way. Her images of the streets, people, and culture of New York City in the 1950s and 1960s are a time capsule of life during that era. Vivian Meyer, who never stopped taking pictures, who chose a job as a “nanny” that gave her a certain amount of freedom, who traveled the world alone with only her camera, was a woman who lived her life to the fullest, free to write her own story. Vivian Meyer once said, “I don’t think anything lasts forever, you have to make room for others, like when you get in the car, you have to go to the end of the seat so someone else can come and sit down.” Her life of not caring about what others thought of her and not giving up on what she loved to do until the end is more impressive than any other movie, even though it is a documentary. Finally, the combination of factual documentation, which is the basis of a documentary, and photography, which captures a moment in time, seemed to be what made this documentary so valuable.