"Finding Vivian Maier" is a documentary that explores the life of a nanny who secretly may have been one of the greatest street photographers of the 20th century.

Some IPC Visual Lab students saw the film after class recently.

Anthony Harris says Maier seemed to be a private person: "No one really knew what and how she thought or what her passions may have been. Our only insight of her is through her vast amount of photography. Her in-your-face, daring, almost challenging approach to her subjects is inspirational and motivational to me in my development as a photographer. Her use of light, knowledge of her camera, composition is brilliant. ... Maloof deserves a ton of credit for bringing her work to us."

Jennifer Kay left the film wanting to know less about Maier as a person and wanting more time to sit and study her work: "The mystery of Maier is a great story, but I wonder if she had led a more 'conventional' life or had a more socially acceptable personality, would we be as enraptured by her work? I tried to think of another artist who left so little documentation about his or her artistic motivations and aspirations behind -- no correspondence, no journals, no cameos in the work of contemporary artists, no exhibits or articles -- and the only comparable artists I could think of were the ancient people who left haunting paintings in caves -- we don't know why they left them, we just know that we respond to them. Do we really judge people on their art, or do we judge how good the behind-the-scenes story is first? What if there was nothing but the art to look at? My favorite part of Maier's work/story (will they ever be inseperable?) is seeing a new perspective from the 1950s and 1960s. It's not often anymore that we see something new from those decades. The film also made a good point about how Maier shot from the hip with her twin-lens camera, the perspective of a child that altered the posture of her subjects. I hadn't thought about shooting from the hip in that way before, and I wonder what would happen to my photographs if I started shooting that way."

Have you seen "Finding Vivian Maier"? Leave a comment with your thoughts about the film and continue the conversation!