Tentative deal in legal fight over Chicago nanny's photos

CHICAGO (AP) — A legal tussle over copyrights to photos from the 1950s onward shot by a Chicago nanny profiled in an Oscar-nominated documentary appeared close to a resolution Tuesday — though a dispute about who is Vivian Maier's rightful heir remains unresolved.

John Maloof, who is credited with discovering the photos and who co-directed "Finding Vivian Maier," told The Associated Press he and the Cook County's public administrator's office have reached a tentative agreement after a year of negotiations.

Maloof, a former Chicago real estate agent, bought a box full of Maier's negatives at auction for $400 from a repossessed storage locker in 2007.

The more than 150,000 photographs Maier took in her spare time in Chicago and New York became a sensation, as her intimate and often-gritty photography focused on everyday people, rich and poor, captured the flavor of a bygone era.