World of Wonder gifted all their friends and Wowlebrities this year with something that is very “of the moment”, and might also be considered “SO 2015”, very shortly. A deluxe, branded selfie stick. (I had a hand in the box design, too… I DO apologize if you didn’t get one but I wasn’t in charge of the list, kids. Collector’s item.)

Thinking self-portraits while writing the next post about Frank Larson‘s newly discovered pics of NYC, I was reminded of Vivian Maier‘s amazing work. Maier worked for about forty years as a nanny, mostly in Chicago’s North Shore, taking pictures her spare time. She took more than 150,000 photographs – mostly of the people and architecture of NYC, Chicago, and L.A. But along the way she photographed herself hundreds of times and left possibly the best collection of selfies of the 20th century. Every photographer, professional and amateur, takes selfies, but Vivian’s take this most narcissistic of enterprises to new artistic heights. You can check her work here, and her book, Vivian Maier Self Portraits is available on Amazon. I’m still amazed that woman, this artist, was unknown in her lifetime and now is considered by many to be one of THE best street photographers of the 20th century. Incredible she never showed or even printed many of her fantastic life’s work. You can check out the intriguing documentary, Finding Vivian Maier on HBO, which even after it is told leaves her a mystery. For someone who was so private, she sure took a lot of photos of herself.

September 10, 1955

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