Vivian Maier was an influential American street photographer in the 20th century. Born in New York City to a French mother and Austrian father, Maier was raised in France. It was during her time in France that she took a liking to photography, with the help for her first camera a Kodak Brownie box camera. Maier returned to the U.S. to work as a nanny in 1951.

It was only in-between her hours as a caregiver did she experiment with her interest in photography. Maier’s main focus, and the art form she excelled in, was street photography.

For most of her life, Maier honed her craft, taking over 100,000 negatives of New York City and Chicago, documenting and memorializing the day-to-day lives of citizens and the change’s in architecture and environment.

Despite her extensive work, Maier’s art was only fully noticed in 2007 during local thrift auction house in Chicago.