While in Chicago earlier this January for the Annual Meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America, I had the good fortune to travel up to the Chicago History Museum in Lincoln Park before the epic snowstorm hit. While I've long been interested in Chicago history - my family has long-time roots in the Windy City - I had an agenda at the CHM, to both visit my friend Ellen (who is the head research librarian there!) as well as see a special exhibition on the photographer Vivian Maier. 

Vivian Maier (1926-2009 was similar to another now-famous Chicagoan, the artist Henry Darger, in that she was little-known during her lifetime despite being extremely prolific, and only has become increasingly popular since her death. Born in NYC, raised in France, and settled in Chicago, she worked as a nanny in the North Shore area and in her spare time photographed the streets and people of Chicago, documenting its history as she went along. Though she traveled and photographed other parts of the world (as far away as Yemen and Thailand!), her Chicago work resonated particularly strongly for me, as it was in the 1960s, when she was most prolific, that my mother (who was then slightly younger than I am now) was living and working in Chicago. Maier witnessed - and photographed - many of the historical events in Chicago that had lasting effects on the city and our country. This was the same Chicago witnessed by my mother that I grew up hearing about, from the Race Riots to the 1968 Democratic National Convention - all of these events resonated in the simple everyday images of the people and neighborhoods that make up Chicago, documented by Vivian Maier.

I was also quite taken with the self-referencial quality of many of Maier's photographs. She included herself in many of her images, but as more than just a self-portrait:  often she chose to depict herself reflected in a mirror, or as a shadow. But always, she was an integral part of the composition and thus part of the narrative that she created through making images.

The exhibition at the CHM is small - just one room - but quite powerful and moving. Prints are arranged uniquely: rather than framed on the wall, large prints are suspended from the ceiling, so that one must weave in and out of the small space and is directly confronted with the images. In addition, a number of series of small prints line the walls , each image thematically relevant and often from the same roll or rolls of film. Through these, we can trace the production of her images. Since much of her work was not printed until after her death (over 700 rolls of film were undeveloped when historian John Maloof discovered her work in 2007), it seems appropriate to display sections of her photography in this manner, mimicking the way contact sheets are laid out in order for the photographer to make choices about which images to print.

I'm delighted to learn that the exhibition, which was scheduled to close the weekend after my visit, has now been extended to Summer 2014 - so there's plenty of time for you to check it out! Also in the works is a documentary film (see link to the trailer below), which also promises to open our eyes even more to this now-known artist.

Sources for further reading:
Vivian Maier Photographer (official website) (the above images are from this site)
Finding Vivian Maier (official documentary trailer)
Wikipedia entry, with references to exhibitions
Vivian Maier: The Unheralded Street Photographer (Smithsonian Magazine article)
flickr slideshow, from the Chicago History Museum

A few weeks ago, I went to the Benaki Museum's Pireos Street Annex to see an exhibit entitled "Greek Seas" (Ελληνικές Θάλασσες). This was my first time at the museum, and really, one of my first times wandering through the Athenian neighborhood of Gazi, which is a fascinating mixture of restaurants, clubs, and graffiti. Photographing its streets is on my "to-do" list for future photographic projects in Athens.

As for the exhibit itself, "Greek Seas" displays 350 photographs from a variety of photographers, both Greeks and foreigners. Besides being the usual crash-course in Modern Greek terminology (αργυροτυπία, anyone?), one can literally see the development of photography from as early as the mid-19th century all the way up to the present day. As such, there is also a change in feel throughout the exhibit: at the start, most of the images concentrate on the presence of ships and boats in Greek harbors. As time progresses, however, the focus shifts towards the people in environments surrounding the water, and the sea becomes a backdrop in many instances. Other themes include times of war, the development of tourism and the sea's role in it, and the relationships between the sea and such subjects as the economy, leisure, and historical events.

My only criticism of the exhibit was that I noticed that many of the photographs were produced as inkjet prints. The reasons for this were not clear - where are or were the original photos? And if only negatives were available, why were original prints not made from them? While recognizing the benefits of time and economy that are possible with inkjet prints and digital technology, there's no escaping the magic of the darkroom, of dodging and burning, of the chemical process of exposures and time and light...but this is a minor quibble, and one that should not distract from an otherwise well-displayed, thoughtful exhibition.

The exhibit is up until January 5, 2014, if you're in Athens and want to check it out (as a bonus, there's a chocolate factory across the street, and the entire area smells like the best hot chocolate on a cold day).