The Vanishing of Vivian Maier

Send us a text When Vivian Maier died in 2009, she left behind over 100,000 negatives, hundreds of undeveloped rolls of film—and no will. Her belongings were sold off in storage auctions, her photographs scattered, and the county of Cook suddenly found itself the legal guardian of a genius no one knew existed. In this episode, host Teresa Porter unpacks what happens when art becomes evidence, when creativity is reduced to paperwork, and when a system built to handle bank accounts and sofas tr...

Send us a text In this special update episode of The Vanishing of Vivian Maier Podcast, host Teresa Porter shares the latest development in the ongoing legal proceedings surrounding Vivian Maier’s estate. Originally scheduled for a pivotal Cook County probate hearing on October 15, 2025, the case has now been continued to January 15, 2026, as the court allows new documentation to be filed. This delay—mysterious yet fitting—mirrors Maier’s own life story: layered, complex, and resistant to eas...

Send us a text How a Quiet Nanny’s Forgotten Negatives Redefined a Century of Street Photography She was one of the most gifted photographers of the 20th century—and for most of her life, no one knew it. In this opening episode of The Vanishing of Vivian Maier, host Teresa Porter traces the astonishing discovery of Vivian Maier’s work and the tangled story that followed. When more than 100,000 photographs were found in Maier’s unpaid storage units after her death, the quiet Chicago nanny inst...

Send us a text The Vanishing of Vivian Maier is a documentary-style podcast about beauty, discovery, and what happens when art outlives the artist. Hosted by Teresa Porter, the series traces how a quiet Chicago nanny with a Rolleiflex camera became one of the most celebrated street photographers of the 20th century — but only after her work was discovered in unpaid storage units. In this trailer, Teresa introduces the mystery and the movement behind the name that went viral in 2010: the story...