Vivian Maier - haunting and beautiful photos from the 1950's

Nothing whatsoever to do with France, but goes into my category of CoolWebsites, is an article I just read on BBC News about the Photographer Vivian Maier from Chicago who was a prolific "street photographer" and took literally tens of thousands of everyday photos of her home town of Chigaco. Despite being an untrained amateur her photos are beautifully framed and shot, mainly in black and white.

Quite by accident John Maloof, a real estate agent in Chicago came across the photos and now two years after Vivian's death he's managed to acquire some 100,000 photos which are now being shown for the first time.

Take a look at the Vivian Maier Blog and also Jeff Goldstein's collection (he has "just" 12,000 of her photos). There's more details of the discovery of the photos and Vivian's life in an article in Chicago Magazine.