what is the info on the hupcap center? I don't recognize it.
She was born in New York City, she moved between the U.S. and France several times during her childhood, living with her mother near to her mother's relations. Her father seems to have left the family for unknown reasons by 1930. In the census that year, the head of the household was listed as award-winning portrait photographer Jeanne Bertrand
In 1951, at the age of 25, Maier moved from France to New York, where she worked in a sweatshop. She made her way to the Chicago in 1956. and there, for approximately 40 years, she worked on and off as a nanny. For a brief period in the 1970s, Maier worked as a nanny for Phil Donahue's children.
The families that employed her described her as very private and reported that she spent her days off walking the streets of Chicago and taking photographs, most often with a Rolleiflex camera.
She learned English by going to theaters, which she loved. ... She was constantly taking pictures, which she didn't show anyone. In 1959 and 1960, Maier took photographs in Los Angeles, Manila, Bangkok, Beijing, Egypt, Italy, and the American Southwest. The trip was probably financed by the sale of a family farm in France.
Toward the end of her life, Maier may have been homeless for some time. She lived on Social Security and may have had another source of income. The children she had cared for in the early 1950s bought her an apartment in the Rogers Park area of Chicago and paid her bills.
In 2008, she slipped on ice and hit her head. She did not fully recover and died in 2009 at the age of 83. Maier's photographic legacy – in the form of some 100,000 negatives, many still undeveloped – was discovered by a 26-year-old real estate agent, John Maloof, who bought 30,000 prints and negatives from an auction house that had acquired the photographs from a storage locker that had been sold off when Maier was no longer able to pay her fees. After buying the first collection of Maier photographs in 2007, Maloof acquired more from another buyer at the same auction.
Maloof soon discovered Maier's name, but was unable to find out more about her until the day after her death, when he found an obituary notice in the Chicago Tribune.
Photo from http://vivianmaier.blogspot.com/
