Banca de DEFESA: MONICA ESTER DA SILVA

THE VIVIAN MAIER CASE: approaches to authorial identity and posthumous legitimation

Vivian Maier. Photography. Authorship. Communication. Artistic legitimation.

This research looks at the recent discovery of Vivian Maier's negatives and his posthumous rise and public legitimation. Found by chance in a Chicago auction house, Maier's immense photographic archive was completely dispersed and re-appropriated, and was later shared online by one of the collectors who purchased the material. Soon the images attracted attention and achieved fame, causing Maier to be quickly legitimized as an icon of documentary photography. The relevance of this discovery is obvious; however, since it is a consecration that had occurred posthumously, some questions become substantial: Maier did not proclaim herself as an artist and never published or sold her photographs before, which leads us to question her authorial identity and the subsequent artistic legitimation of his photographic legacy. As a result of these singularities, we followed the course of his climb highlighting the discursive and communicational approaches that shape his public character and ratify the value of his photographic heritage, using as a foundation the complete biographical incursion of Maier
published by Pamela Bannos, the studies on authorship and work discussed by Michel Foucault and Clarissa Diniz's observations about the legitimating dynamics that move the gears of the art system, which led us to a more diligent observation of the narratives that inhabit the core of the Vivian Maier case and the methods that communicate her public reception as a whole.