Quote of the week: Bill Cunningham
I cried at the Bill Cunningham New York movie (which opened in London this weekend). Here’s a gentleman – and Cunningham is a real gent – who’s been riding up and down the streets of New York for over half a century. On a rickety old bike. Snapping pictures of ordinary folk. Actually, Cunningham is onto his 29th bike, the other 28 have been stolen. It’s the clothes he loves, not the celebrities and their ‘cookie cutter’ sameness. ‘He who seeks beauty shall find it,’ points out the 81-year-old New York Times photographer, ‘I could never be a paparazzi, to torment people and chase them. I do it discreetly.’
Cunningham lives a very simple life. The original street style photographer doesn’t take favours and is not remotely interested in money. Home is a small apartment in Carnegie Hall (though the documentary deals with the rehousing of tenants from the building): no kitchen and a bathroom down the hall, a very basic camp bed surrounded by rows of filing cabinets containing all his negatives. Bill has modest taste. Eschewing fancy food for a three dollar breakfast at a local cafe saying, ‘ I eat with my eyes,’ and rejecting fancy clothes for a street sweeper’s jacket that’s become a Cunningham trademark.
Anyhow. I know I’m going on a bit – but I found BCNY deeply moving – here’s one of my favourite quotes:
‘The wider world perceives fashion as frivolity that should be done away with. The point is that fashion is the armour to survive the reality of everyday life. I don’t think you can do away with it. It would be like doing away with civilization.’
This film puts life into perspective and highlights the soulless artifice of phoney/corporate fashion and modern-day celebrity. Bill Cunningham’s discerning eye sees through, and beyond, all that.
Photo: Esquire
Discussion (18 Comments)
i cannot wait to see this. thanks so much for your favorite quotes. for many, me included, fashion is an escape from all the rotten things in life. he says that so well.
I'm glad that I wasn't the only person who cried at the documentary. SO rich with real New York characters..made me really homesick for the city!
I cannot wait to see it! Only the worst cold & cough ever prevented me this weekend. You've made me want to see it more x
I've been hearing more and more about this film and your response to it convinces me that I need to see it. Beyond the man's obvious likeability factor, I'm intrigued by the passion to do something for its own sake rather than for money or fame or whatever — and that he carries on in his old age doing the same thing, still content. The simplicity of purpose — and it sounds as if the simplicity of his lifestyle overall — is compelling.
One of a kind and to be admired! I read that he was a milliner at one point in his life.
Dear A
I LUFFED this movie 9million/10 and wept and wept.
I was so moved when he spoke of his family, his1st job, his religion…He was AMAZING and gracious on about 100 levels.
My Fave doco of 2011. Truly I loved it.
What about how he is patiently lining up for Paris Fashion week and he gets ushered in with "This is the most important man on earth"!!!
This movie is almost more powerful when you follow it with that doco film about the loss of power and revenue of the NYT whose name I forget- Wendy brabdes Husband makes a cameo. Pls watch it x
He is indeed very sweet and humble. I was chatting to him in Paris telling him the documentary was going live here and he hoped we wouldnt be disappointed too much….I told him I am sure we would be inspired. "Thank you child" he said. Then he grabbed Anna Dello Russo and said come here child (you see youth is all a matter of perspective) and made her sit in a bicycle rickshaw. There were other photographers around who went to raise their cameras to take the shot too I told them to stop, this is Bills shot. I would guess at most he took 2 frames. And let her go. Lovely man. Xxxx
michellebeth – certainly not, I'm impressed!
FF – haven't seen the NY Times documentary but sounds really interesting, I'll ask Wendy about it. Thanks.
Wendy – yes, his knowledge of fashion is amazing. And I'd love to see his archive – someone needs to publish a book.
Fashionistable – I love how you police those cheeky photographers at fashion week. They have such a nerve, nipping in and stealing other people's shots. Well done for seeing them off!
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I have a friend in New York City who has been photographed by Bill (and published) three times! Is that a little bit like knowing a boy who danced with a girl who danced with the Prince of Wales? Seriously the movie is indeed wonderful. Thanks for your post.