Although a nanny by profession, Vivian Maier’s real passion was photography. Like many great artists, her brilliant work was only discovered in retrospect, when a real estate agent stumbled upon thousands of her negatives and prints in 2007. Her photographs were never exhibited or published while she was alive – Maier, it seems, photographed simply for herself.

The exhibition at Museo di Roma in Trastevere features 120 select photographs (the majority are black and white) captured in the 1950s and 60s, along with a selection of color images and videos taken in the 70s.

Maier portrayed the cities where she had lived – New York and Chicago – with a unique perspective. She was attracted to small details that revealed imperfections of the people and lives that flowed before her eyes on the street, capturing the city and its people in a time of fervent social and cultural change. Among her photographic work are a number of notable self-portraits. Her portraiture is never quite direct; instead her image is reflected in windows, puddles, mirrors, ever elusive.