Photographer and Nanny. Born in New York, she spent much of her childhood in France starting at the age of four in 1930. After 1949 she moved to New York and retained a French accent for the rest of her life. Learning English by going to theaters, something she loved and wore men's jackets and shoes along with a large hat most of the time. She was described as a Catholic who was anti-Catholic who held Socialist and Feminist ideas. In 1951 she came to Chicago to work as a nanny for a North Shore family. She worked for several families over the years and was a very private person who pursued her photography interest in her spare time and on days off. She never showed her photographs to anyone. While researching a book John Maloof purchased a box of photos from an auction house which received them from a storage locker that had been sold due to delinquent payments. The identity of the photographer was not found with the photos. John attempted to replicate her photos and began to realize the caliber of her work so he sought out others who had purchased boxes of her negatives and photographs until he had over 100,000 negatives. Included in the collection were about 20-30,000 negatives still in their undeveloped rolls from the 1960's-1970's. John has been successfully developing these rolls and scanning the images. He finally found her name on other photo's he purchased and began to track Vivian down. Unfortunately she died before he was able to meet with her. Her work has astounded the 'Street Photography' world and is the subject of upcoming books, exhibitions, and documentaries. It is shocking to know that this incredible collection was almost lost except for a chance encounter by someone who came to recognize the treasure that was almost discarded.