The Art of Story Telling - Eugene Richards and Vivian Maier

I love street photography because of the endless adventures and the ability to capture moments that will never happen again. Recently I have discovered two very different street photographers who spent the greater part of their lives dedicated to their work and what I have learned most after studying their images is the importance of story telling. I present to you two unique street photographers, Eugene Richards and Vivian Maier.

Eugene Richards, an accomplished photographer printed in major magazines such as Life, National Geographic and Esquire and author of 15 important photography books. Well worth exploring are Exploding into Life, Richards chronicles his first wife’s battle with breast cancer, A Procession with Them, documents the plight of the world’s mentally disabled and Cocaine True, Cocaine Blue, an indepth and intimate look at the embattled inhabitants of three troubled communities around New York City. The photographs tell the stories; a sample from each book is on his site Eugenerichards.com

Vivian Maier, a private and reclusive woman who was a prolific in taking photographs from the streets of Chicago for nearly 40 years, but never shared her work with anyone. Maier was recently discovered after her death and contents from her storage unit was sold at an auction. The man who purchased the belongings from her estate discovered over 100,000 negatives taken from the 1950s-1990s. Now he is slowly scanning her body of work for all to see and a small collection is being displayed at the Chicago Cultural Center through the spring of 2011. I wonder how Vivian would have felt knowing her work is being displayed for all to see? You can see a selection of her images at vivianmaier.blogspot.com

I have gained inspiration and knowledge from each of these amazing photographers, but what I have learned most from their images is the importance of telling a story through photographs. I hope you gain as much insight I as I have from Eugene Richards and Vivian Maier.

Their work can be found at http://eugenerichards.com/ and http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com