The really intriguing thing, for me at least, is how many other "Vivian Maiers" are there, or have there been, that we will never know about?
Probably hundreds, if not thousands. When you consider how unlikely it was that anybody would have noticed her work in the first place, it's easy to imagine what must be huge quantities of good, old work that is mouldering away in boxes around the world, unknown, under appreciated, and with no hope of finding its way into the hands of any serious collector.
The sort of people who look for old photos generally ignore photos like these. They're looking for historic photos of landmarks and events, and beside that point in most cases old photos either stay in the family forever or get jumbled up and lost in who knows how many other people's photos. You might find a few really interesting ones - but you'd have no way of finding out who took them or how to find more from the same set.
Because Vivian kept her photos more or less together, and because she was distant from her family, and because a lot of photos just happened to be found by a couple of collectors who saw potential for $$$ - we all got to find out about her work. Otherwise it'd be in some attic, or out in the trash.
As for her sexuality, it seems these days that every historical person who never married is up for debate. Usually though if anybody pays attention to what people who knew them saw - they were just loners or hermits and that's all there is to it.
