Finding Vivian Maier Page #3

Something like that.

Her job was as a

housekeeper and a nanny.

Vivian was my nanny.

Vivian came into our lives when we

needed a caretaker for my mother.

I was just staring at her,

and I had thought,

"Where did my sister find this

lady to baby-sit her kids?"

She was obsessed with just

saving bits of memories,

of moments in time.

The stuff that she collected all helped

me understand her a little better.

I have dozens of audio

tapes that Vivian made.

I have around 1508mm

and 16mm movies.

I found pictures of Phil Donahue.

Like, in his home,

petting a dog and at dinner.

I was a single parent in Winnetka,

Illinois, with four sons.

Along comes Vivian.

I met her in a diner,

to interview her

for this housekeeper job.

She took my picture.

I was a guy running back

and forth over my shoes.

I had to do a programme

every day, sometimes two.

I didn't want any trouble, I just...

You know, I just wanted clean socks.

She was with us less than a year.

I have a memory of

her taking a picture

inside a garbage can.

I thought, "Well, you know...

"They laughed at Picasso. "

I didn't know. I mean,

I didn't give it much thought.

I didn't think she was crazy.

Vivian took self-portraits.

In my mind, I don't know what

image I had of this person,

but it was definitely not

the image that I uncovered.

She came across as unusual.

She wore big... big coats,

with felt hats.

The kind of thing that might

have been popular in 1925.

She was always kind

of hiding her figure.

You know, wearing these heavy clothes.

And these boots.

They used to call her Army Boots.

She was very tall.

Seven feet...

- No! Seven feet!

- She was tall.

- Oh, she must have been about five nine.

- Six foot.

- She liked wearing men's shirts...

- She wore men's shirts.

She said the tailoring was better.

She'd have kind of a...

just a straight blunt cut.

She had hair that stuck straight up!

Now, looking back, I would

say she kind of dressed

like you would expect to

find women factory workers

in the Soviet Union in

the '50s or something.

That's how she walked.

You have to swing your

arms up like this,

and you have to do a...

sort of a Nazi march.

You'd see her on her

little motorised bicycle.

I mean, I remember sometimes thinking

she kind of looked like...

the Wicked Witch of the West.

Always had her camera

around her neck.

Always the camera around her neck.

She had, like, this great camera with...

I remember, it was a square.

Rolleiflex. You flip open the thing and you

look through the viewfinder directly down.

I lusted after a twin-lens Rolly.

And here, she had one.

And I looked at that camera,

and it looked like it was rather old.

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