Street Photographer Vivian Maier's Vintage Prints, Self-Portraits and Earliest Camera Work to Auction

Vivian Maier's photographs only caught the world's attention several years after her death when storage locker sales in Chicago unearthed thousands of her photos and negatives. On May 2, Heritage Auctions will present a selection of her photographs that she printed herself or had printed in her lifetime, almost none of which has been made available until now. 

While it's estimated that Maier took upwards of 100,000 photos, beginning her signature square Rolleiflex work in 1952  the vast majority of her work surfaced as negatives. Maier, an American born in New York to a French mother and Austrian father, rarely printed her work or had it printed by others. 

"The Vivian Maier Photographs: A Singular Vision auction is the first of its kind, focused exclusively on Maier and solely offering her vintage work," said Sarahjane Blum, Heritage's Director of Illustration Art. "Offering selections from the collection of Ron Slattery, one of the original collectors responsible for bringing Maier's work into public view, this event features a careful selection of Maier's vintage prints, negatives, transparencies, and personal ephemera. Maier is not thought to have exhibited or sold her work during her lifetime, which makes the breadth of her vintage work available as part of this auction all the more significant."