Kering Celebrates This “Invisible” New Yorker Behind Fotografiska’s New Exhibition of Never-Before-Seen Photographs

“I could see that in New York literally tomorrow walking in the street,” Laurent Claquin tells me as he motions to never-before-seen photographs captured by a once “invisible” female photographer. Vivian Maier, born a New Yorker in 1926, spent years as a nanny taking over 100,000 photos of everyday life in the city. “She s become an icon and a legend,” says Claquin, president of Kering Americas, of the “mysterious” woman who’s been inspiring fashion and film since 2007, when her work was discovered in Chicago.

Tonight, we’re on the 5th floor of Fotografiska’s Park Avenue space for a private viewing of “Vivian Maier: Unseen Work,” curated by Anne Morin, director of diChroma photography. “This is Vivian Maier’s first major retrospective and we are here to celebrate that, and we brought it to New York through the Kering Woman in Motion program, which is an initiative that s spent 10 years really promoting women within art and entertainment,” says Claquin. “It s about putting a spotlight on their work because they ve been overshadowed so for so many years.”

After exploring the exhibition, guests, including And Just Like That… star Sarita Choudhury, supermodel Alek Wek, and photographer Vanina Sorrenti, made their way to a seated Veronika dinner for a family-style meal. The energy is electric, and conversations range from whispers of how we’re dining inside the now-infamous building that Anna Delvey scouted to streaming the Oscar-nominated Finding Vivian Maier documentary to the best pizza spot in SoHo. As dessert is served, Sorrenti, who cut her teeth in the city, takes in the room—the “vibes” are right: “I don t live here anymore,” she says of spending time abroad. “And being here brings me back to New York City.”

It’s been an evening filled with champagne toasts, belly laughs, and plenty of cinematic Manhattan scenes where a dream may come true at any moment. “This is also, for me, an homage to all the amateur work—there s value in it, and it s actually so beautiful,” Claquin says, wondering aloud: “How many other Vivian Maier’s do we have in the world?”