vivian maier - ERIC KIM ₿

Composition Lesson #14: Square Format

symmetry-woman — Symmetry in 6×6 photo by Diane Arbus

You can see all my composition lessons here.

I have been quite fascinated with the square-format in street photography for a while. My fascination first came about from Jeroen Helmink, a photographer from the Netherlands (you can see a fun video we made on shooting Hasseblads). There was something quite sexy about the 6×6 format– the way that it created perfect balance in the frame, the simplicity, as well as the novelty.

Of course as InstagramÂ has become insanely popular– the square-format just looks like an “Instagram shot.” I have heard of Instagram as “ruining” the 6×6 format (medium-format film).

However I don’t think it really matters what camera, format, or aspect ratio you shoot in. Ultimately the most important thing is to create a visually compelling image that speaks to our hearts or souls.

5 Lessons Vivian Maier Has Taught Me About Street Photography

All photographs copyrighted by Vivian Maier / Maloof Collection

A street photographer whose work and life I hugely admire is that of Vivian Maier. For those of you who haven’t heard her story, she worked and lived as a nanny her entire adult life– and shot street photography on the side for herself. She created incredible black and white and color work through the 1950’s all the way through the late 1990â€²s. She shot an incredible amount of images– that amount to over 100,000 negatives.

Recently the documentary: “Finding Vivian Maier” on the mystery behind her life and discovery came out. I realized I haven’t written an article on her yet– so I wanted to use the opportunity to do so.

Exciting New Trailer for “Finding Vivian Maier” Feature-Length Documentary Film

About two years ago, John Maloof started a Kickstarter to fund a feature-length documentary film: “Finding Vivian Maier“. Since then, the film has made a lot of progress (it will be released later this year) and an official trailer has just been released (watch above).Â After watching the trailer, I am confident that the film will do a great job uncovering the hidden life and photography of Vivian Maier.

For those of you who are not familiar with Vivian Maier, you can read more about some words I have written about her story here.

You can also see more work by Vivian Maier on her official websiteÂ here.

Follow the Progress of the Film

To follow the progress of the film, follow the Vivian Maier film below:

Vivian Maier – The Unknown Master Street Photographer

Self-portrait of Vivian Maier

vivian_maier_self_portrait — Self-portrait of Vivian Maier

Recently word of theÂ phenomenalÂ discovery of street photographer Vivian Maier has been hitting the web like wildfire. Â A fellow Chicago street photographer by the name of John Maloof found Vivian’s negatives in 2007 while at a furniture and antique auction house. After scanning and looking through her collection of 30-40,000 negatives, he soon realized that she had a tremendous gift for street photography. Not only that, but he realized that he also had a huge responsibility to share her work with the rest of the world.