Finding Vivian Maier .... and ourselves

     I just watched the documentary Finding Vivian Maier. It is a film about a man who bought a box full of negatives at an auction and discovered photos of an amateur photographer. The photos were amazing. They were never displayed anywhere until after her death. The man who found these photos found out that Vivian Maier was a nanny and took these amazing photos as a personal hobby that no one knew about. Now that they have been discovered they have been exhibited in galleries.
    What struck me about this film was not just that it was a shame that she was not able to profit from her talent but that she did not bother sharing her photos with friends. No one  really ever saw these amazing photos. No one would have really found them had the storage area where she had kept her photos had not been cleared out and auctioned off.
       Like Vivian Maier there is so much about others that we do not know. There is so much about ourselves we do not share. There is so much potential in each of us that is not being maximized or shared with others. After watching this film I was really glad that I post my photos on facebook and sometimes on my blog. Pictures are not just two dimensional. They show so much about the subject and the way the photographer relates to the subject. It tells a story and evokes emotion.
      There is a lot of  potential in everyone. Its important to try and figure out what it is and try to not to just keep it to ourselves.

gifts

i believe that some people are born with certain gifts. a gift is something someone is good at naturally that others have to work at  to achieve. ever notice how some people know what business venture to choose and are always profitable while someone else struggles with parnassah. some people have a good memory for names and faces while others can never remember them.
some men know how to speak with women and always have a girlfriend/wife regardless of wealth or lack thereof. they just have that gift. with others no amount of wealth or good looks can make up for their awkwardness. they may be able to be taught social grace, but it still would not be as fluent as someone who was born with it. others are computer buffs who could have given steve jobs a run for his money. those whithout that type of gift can still use a computer but would have never have invented the  micro chip.

i have a freakishly good memory for names and faces and for things that interest me. i am also a creative person. creativity comes easy to me . though one can be taught crafts or photography , creativity is really innate . you can learn the rules, but unless one has a propensity or gift in these areas there is no creativity.
everyone has a gift, the challenge is to be able to appreciate it no matter how great or small it is and to make use of it to maximize one's potential.