Vivian Maier (Courtesy VivianMaier.com)
Most people in this day and age equate success with external validation and praise. But Vivian Maier, a now recognized street photographer, didn't. Throughout her life (born 1926), she took more than 150,000 photos, which captured incredible, human moments and ended up hidden away in storage for years, even after she passed. Maier did not tell anyone about her hobby or share prints. She worked as a low-income nanny for most of her life and died with little money in her pocket. And in 2007, a Chicago collector named John Maloof acquired some of the images she'd taken and posted them on Flickr, where they went viral. Since, her posthumous photography career has taken off.
Hearing Maier's story made me think about what "real" success is and how have I been living accordingly to achieve it, especially since living through COVID-19. My conclusion? Click the audio link below to hear it.