Speculations

Adding everything all up makes it seem like the following were likely true:
- Maier's family was probably Jewish (the surname)
- She was probably molested at a young age, possibly by the father, hence the dismay of the aunt
- Of course she wanted her work to be seen. Her proposal to the French printer makes that obvious. But she wasn't a good printer and also not a good sales person.
- She probably should have been a journalistic photographer, but probably the sexism of that time made that difficult.
- Probably her mother was a photographer who helped her to develop her "eye" at an early age.
- Obviously a very intelligent person with very wide interests. Just listen to her audio tapes that are a bonus feature of the documentary.