Chicago

Vivian Maier is best known for her square-format black-and-white images, which were first exhibited at the Chicago Cultural Center in 2011, just two years after the artist’s death. Maier’s life’s work in Chicago captures a strikingly candid look at the city and its inhabitants during the second half of the 20th century. Maier spent most of her life in Chicago’s North Shore neighborhood, where she nannied for an upper-class family and created hundreds of thousands of photographs—without showing nearly anyone. In her private nanny’s quarters, Maier’s bathroom doubled as her darkroom, where she developed everything from self-portraits in rearview mirrors to stocking-footed children playing on the sidewalk. Maier’s images of Chicago are considered priceless cultural artifacts, for capturing the city’s humor, melancholy, and history in equal parts.