Chicago (Vivian’s Shadow with Flags), July 1970 1970

Curator: This gelatin silver print, taken by Vivian Maier in July of 1970, is titled "Chicago (Vivian’s Shadow with Flags)". It certainly grabs one's attention with its stark contrasts and unusual framing. Editor: Absolutely, the dramatic play of light and shadow immediately creates a rather somber mood. It's a study in contrasts, from the sharp angles of the pennant shadows to the soft, crumpled form of the discarded newspaper. Curator: Note how the artist subtly integrates herself into the composition via her shadow. It’s an acknowledgement of the photographer’s presence, almost as a silent observer. The diagonal sweep of pennant shadows cuts across the plane, adding dynamism. Editor: The choice of material, the newspaper itself, offers social commentary when placed alongside that shadow. Daily news, disposable and transient, mirroring perhaps a fleeting presence or engagement with a city's concerns, lying upon a public streetscape that citizens tread upon to achieve a given means of production. Curator: A powerful juxtaposition, given the flag motif and the date coinciding with fraught times within American society. Semiotically, one could interpret these flag shadows as fractured patriotism, falling over ignored media. Editor: That’s quite right. The texture and evident handling of the paper--it has been read, folded, perhaps carried—tell a story of its life before it ended here as pavement debris in Chicago. Maier's keen observation grants meaning and elevates a forgotten commodity of communication and connects the figure as consumer in the creation of waste and decay. Curator: Maier truly transforms the mundane into the evocative through keen composition and monochrome rendering, a modernist interpretation. The shadows as the signifier of political presence or a celebration perhaps abandoned by those who passed on to their respective locations on this July day. Editor: By manipulating such simple materials – light, shadow, paper – Maier compels us to confront both the immediate aesthetics of the image, and prompts us to contemplate deeper resonances around process and materiality. The forgotten citizen lost on their commute is captured between utility and representation by its context and placement on the surface of a given street. Curator: I am struck, anew, by the strength of this artist's formal capabilities and through her lens on urban life. Editor: I concur. The intersectionality between our constructed, physical experiences can often speak volumes through art, and it's clearly spoken to here through the social production captured by the eye.