Well, I watched the document via FInnish YLE Teema, and I got all the answers I needed =) I think she was an obsessed amateur photographer, nothing more nothing less. But a damn good one! Way much better then so called professional Mike Disfarmer: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Disfarmer

Or actually there is one question that bothers me... How on earth we people form such ridiculous ideals on what is art? =D The funniest thing I saw on that document was how MoMa and other "art institutions" behave.

I hadn't heard of Mike Disfarmer, but I looked his photos up and his portrait style is very different than street photography. They both capture a time now lost to history and both may capture the curiosity of the viewer.

www.disfarmer.org

It was clear to me Vivian was a hoarder and had issues needing help. Institutions concept of art usually deals with the amount of income the art can generate for the institution and I suspect if they aren't kicking themselves yet for not accepting the archive ... they soon will be. Only a small sampling of her images have been seen by the public and she has tens of thousands of images!

Based on my own personal rule of thumb one needs to take ten pictures to get one good shot. So, it means Maier should have at least several thousand masterpieces =)

Or more! I think you tend to develop a better eye for the shot with film! :-)

On BBC document, around 38 minute, there is mentioned her "hit rate was phenomenal" =D

Thanks to Angelica for mentioning the BBC document on Meier, and than you Norm for the link =) Watching it right now.

Document on Disfarmer I also saw via Finnish YLE Teema. Maybe it can be found also somewhere else for you to watch. EDIT: I meant even for free. Although 1$ is not much asked at disfarmer.org.

I found it rather late here and stayed up well past my bedtime to watch it and at about 48 minutes it jumped to the next movie. I reloaded it this morning, but only got in another 5 minutes before I left for work. I guess I'll finish it tonight. The BBC version is a little better film I think! I found where I can download Disfarmer at www.disfarmer.org, but it's far from free! I may do a little more hunting on this one.

It shows as $9.99 on my end. I did find a musical photo show of his work:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uwxpV_avGI

An amazing story.

Yes ... very much so!

Have only seen the trailer, so need to watch the full documentary. Seems she was rather obsessive, but incredibly talented.

Lots of interviews with people who had contact with her, but I suspect few actually knew her despite being in the same house for years. Both documentaries are well worth watching!

Finally had a chance to watch Finding Vivian Maier. I hadn't realized that it was up for an Oscar (it didn't win but see this Huffington Post article for interesting interviews with her discoverer and the filmmaker: Vivian Maier, The Mysterious Nanny Behind A Trove Of Brilliant Street Photography, Is Going To The Oscars). And I found it intriguing that her work was apparently first posted on Flickr.

Haven't had an opportunity to check out the other Vivian Maier documentary or the ones dealing with Disfarmer, but hope to do so eventually. That leads me to wonder whether there are similar documentaries that might be interesting to see. One that comes to mind is Other People's Pictures, which is described on its Web site as: "Nine obsessive collectors share an unlikely addiction: snapshots that have been abandoned or lost by their original owners and are now for sale." I tracked this down via interlibrary loan a few years ago and enjoyed watching it.

Are there other photography-related documentaries that anyone else would recommend?

Lee Miller has one, but it's got some age to it. I looked at inter-library loan for "Other People's Photos", but it's not available that way through our library.

Thanks for the lead on the Lee Miller film--I'll have to track it down. Is it possible that your library could borrow Other People's Photos from one of the 15 or so academic libraries in the U.S. that have the DVD? See the holdings info at the OCLC WorldCat Web site at www.worldcat.org/oclc/498409417 (if you can't get to the catalog and list of libraries, let me know and I'll send the info to you).