Through Vivian Maier’s lens

CHENNAI: Artist and educator Safrin led the latest edition of The Monthly Muse, a year-long programme that introduces participants to significant artists and their creative processes. Each edition explores a different artist, with participants eventually presenting their interpretations in an exhibition at the end of the year.

The latest session that was held on September 26, focused on Vivian Maier, the American street photographer whose photographs documented ordinary people, everyday moments and changing urban landscapes. Though her work remained largely unknown during her lifetime, the photographs she left behind became an important visual record of city life.

For Safrin, it was Maier’s instinctive approach to documenting people that made her work particularly relevant today. “I liked how she documented life around her without making her subjects pose for her, and most of them were anonymous, normal people. That approach to photography is important to creators as they attempt to document people around them,” Safrin says.

“This is something to keep in mind with Generative AI becoming increasingly prevalent in its ability to reproduce photorealistic images.”

Rather than focusing on technical perfection, the workshop encouraged participants to observe their surroundings, engage with people and find stories in moments that might otherwise go unnoticed.

To introduce participants to Maier’s photographic practice, Safrin planned to collaborate with Kevin, an aspiring cinematographer from Cellage Filmlab, who would share his knowledge of film photography and his medium-format camera, similar to the one used by Maier.

Participants were given prompts such as “heavy”, “energy”, “old” and “enough”, which they could interpret through their own experiences and surroundings.

“Prompts like this make them think for a moment before capturing scenes in front of them. It makes the process intentional, as they think about the meaning and seek the subjects accordingly,” Safrin explains.

The choice of equipment was deliberately left open. Participants could use a film camera, digital camera or mobile phone.

“We had a mixed audience. Some had analogue cameras, some had digital cameras, some came with just their mobile phone. The devices they carry should not be a restriction to capture photographs or create something,” Safrin says.

For Safrin, this was an important part of Vivian Maier’s legacy. “I think a lot of us believe that we need a certain kind of device, or a certain amount of photography experience to document the world around us, but Vivian’s work affirms the principle that a person need not be academically trained to photograph the world around them, and they can do it just for the joy of it,” she says.

For Allen, an analogue photographer who enjoys documenting people in intimate settings, the workshop offered a chance to step outside familiar photographic spaces.

“As an analogue photographer who likes documenting people in an intimate setting, I felt that Vivian’s work in street photography broadened my horizons. It forces me to contextualise people in their surroundings and capture very ephemeral moments,” he says.

Allen brought his Nikon FM2 analogue camera, his first and only camera, to the workshop. Its limited settings allow him to concentrate on the subject rather than the technical possibilities.

“There’s something so organic about having just three settings to play with, and the rest of the experience is focused on the subject through the lens. In an increasingly digital world controlled and parameterised by infinite settings, it’s sometimes therapeutic to give up control through an analogue camera,” he says.

The photowalk also brought the question of consent into focus.

“Safrin taught us the importance of getting consent before starting the photowalk, and I think that’s something that’s overlooked quite a lot,” Allen says.

He recalls approaching a woman and asking if he could photograph her, only to find that she was not comfortable with it.

“When she wasn’t okay with it, it stuck with me. Some people like to exist without being captured, and that’s okay. Maybe we should learn to accept that some things are not meant to be captured.”

For Allen, the experience brought him back to the word ‘sonder’, the realisation that every stranger has a life as complex and meaningful as one’s own.

“To step into their boundaries for a moment felt like a privilege,” he says.

For Raghav, Maier’s story was as inspiring as her photographs. The fact that she documented thousands of rolls of film for the joy of it, without seeking validation, changed how he approached photography.

“Vivian flipped that completely. Now, I find myself noticing mundane everyday scenes and suddenly the ordinary world feels extraordinary. Now I want to capture every moment,” he says.

Having recently purchased a digital camera, Raghav appreciated the freedom it gave him to experiment.

“Digital gives me the freedom to experiment and make rookie mistakes without stressing too much,” he says.

For Abhinaya, a beginner who has attended a few photowalks to learn how to use a camera, it was The Chaos Club’s approach to creative learning that drew her to the workshop. She usually prefers photographing non-living subjects, but Vivian encouraged her to explore photographing people in everyday situations. “After Vivian Maier, it piqued my interest in keeping humans as subjects, and you can take a fabulous photo even in a daily scenario,” she says.

Although she is considering buying a digital camera, she used her mobile phone during the photowalk. “The prompts like ‘forgotten’ and ‘heavy’ made me stop and think, like, how can I capture it? So it gave me a new challenge to work on,” she says.

For Safrin, these different interpretations reflect the larger purpose of The Monthly Muse: encouraging participants to engage with an artist’s creative process and find their own means of expression.

The first edition focused on Salvador Dalí, followed by Leonardo da Vinci and Raja Ravi Varma. Each edition encouraged participants to approach art through their experiences and mediums.

“The participants thought just like the artists did and were able to translate their thoughts into art using different mediums. Those artworks were inspired by their personal experiences,” Safrin says. Details of the upcoming workshop will be announced on The Chaos Club’s Instagram page.