Vivian Maier
She is an American photographer who took photographs during the 1900's and early 2000's. She left over 100,00 negatives which most of these where shot in New York City and Chicago. Some off her earliest photo's where shot with a Kodak Brownie box camera but later went onto shoot with a rolleiflex--- camera because the Kodak was an amateur camera with only one shutter speed, no focus control and no aperture dial. She loved the dark room and loved to develop her photos although nothing was done with her incredible work. She worked with the dark room and this is why I enjoy her photo's. She would walk around the streets and take photographs from everyday life off different people during the 1900's. The photo's below are the favourite pieces of her work, and this has inspired me to do contact sheets, for either pinhole, or film and go around the streets I live in and take photos off everyday life. I aim to create a massive amount off contact sheets and try to recreate some of the photos below. My favourite picture out of the ones below is the last one, this is due to the focus that she has created with the woman, I like how she is the centre of the photo and your eyes first look at her then the rest of the photo. This photo is not underexposed nor overexposed and I want to try and recreate this photo I want to try and find the same camera she used and take this out to the streets and develop the photos in the darkroom, which I believe to be better than digital. You can clearly tell that this photo was taken during the day because of the harsh light at the top left of the photograph, although this is the only harsh light throughout the photo, there are not many visible shadows expect from within the archways of the building and I believe this adds an extra layer to the photograph, there are a few tons throughout this image, with it being very light in some areas and very dark in others, but there is also mid tones throughout the photo and I enjoy this about the photo, the photograph is not the same its tone is different throughout. She used daylight lighting and this shows how good a photographer she is, she is able to use this type of lighting and not come out with harsh shadows on the face or some parts are not overexposed, and this is why this is my favourite photo from her collection and why I want to recreate it.