The passing of legendary photographer Bill Cunningham

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Lillie

The passing of legendary photographer Bill Cunningham

The death of legendary style and fashion photographer Bill Cunningham on Saturday, 25th June, was confirmed this weekend by The Times. A vision so familiar, cycling through New York in his blue French worker’s jacket and khaki pants, Cunningham was a monument of New York city, so much so that in 2009 the New York Landmarks Conservancy designated him a living landmark.

Known for his rigorous work capturing the street-style of New Yorkers, as well as fashion weeks and galas around the world, Cunningham offered a glimpse into the realities of fashion as it trickled down from the runway, to magazine editorials, and finally to the people themselves. He was one of the most famous photographer of all times. “Fashion is as vital and as interesting today as ever,” he stated in an essay for The Times in 2002. “I know what people with a more formal attitude mean when they say they’re horrified by what they see on the street. But fashion is doing its job. It’s mirroring exactly our times.” Cunningham in turn offered an exacting vision of this mirror, creating a style of fashion photography that has inspired many of the photographers working today, and brought greater light to personal style that in turn has promoted and encouraged a greater emphasis on personal street-style today.

This chronicling of eras through street-style clothing, moment to moment and year to year, offers a keen idea into the changes and evolutions of fashion, style, culture and society on a ground level. “I suppose, in a funny way, I’m a record keeper,” he said of himself in his essay for The Times. “More than a collector. I’m very aware of things not of value but of historical knowledge. I remember when Chez Ninon was closing in the mid-70’s. I went in one day, and the files were outside in the trash. I said to the secretary, “Well, I hope you gave all the letters from Jackie Kennedy and Mrs. Rose Kennedy to the Kennedy Library.” And she said, “No, they kept a few, but they felt that the rest were too personal, so they threw them out.” I rescued everything I could and still have it.”

 

Born William John Cunningham Jr. in Boston on March 13 1929, Bill Cunningham presented an individuality early on that remained with him throughout his life. A Harvard drop-out and one time hat-maker turned photographer, Cunningham transitioned from Boston to New York, and from millinery in an apartment on 52nd street, to fashion-chronicling in a studio above Carnegie Hall. “I started photographing people on the street during World War II” he stated of his beginnings in the same 2002 article for The Times. “I used a little box Brownie. Nothing too expensive. The problem is I’m not a good photographer. To be perfectly honest, I’m too shy. Not aggressive enough. Well, I’m not aggressive at all. I just loved to see wonderfully dressed women, and I still do. That’s all there is to it.” He later went on to serve in the Korean war, before returning to New York as a columnist for Women’s Wear Daily, then the Chicago Tribune, and from there many more.

A man of stern conviction, he refused staff positions at numerous publications, until he was hit by a truck in 2004, citing a need for health insurance as the reason behind his change of heart. He was known to remark, “Once people own you, they can tell you what to do. So don’t let ’em.” True to this sentiment, was said to simply throw away cheques from certain publishers he worked for, claiming that money is cheap, and that liberty and freedom are the most expensive. Celebrities were of little interest to him – he preferred photographing less celebrated subjects, looking for the inspired and intriguing in the everyday dresser rather than the predictably stylized outfits of fashionable and famed personalities. This said, he still photographed many famed men and women, such as Anna Wintour and Annette de la Renta, at gala events and on the street as well. His focus simply strayed from the mainstream trends and clinging hails for recognition.

Contrasting these attention-seeking trends, Cunningham avoided the attention his work garnered, rejecting the celebrity his admirers sought to provide him. The Council of Fashion Designers of America honored him in 1993, and again in 2008 he was honored in Paris, France, bestowed with the Legion of Honor by the French Government. In 2010, he was the subject of a documentary titled, “Bill Cunningham new York,” a documentary he declined to see, though he attended the opening-night of the film in order to photograph the event.

Bill Cunningham leaves behind the worlds he touched better for his presence. He leaves a legacy of innovation in spirit and in form through his work, and a legacy of humility and the pursuit of beauty for its own sake.

“When I’m photographing, I look for the personal style with which something is worn — sometimes even how an umbrella is carried or how a coat is held closed. At parties, it’s important to be almost invisible, to catch people when they’re oblivious to the camera — to get the intensity of their speech, the gestures of their hands. I’m interested in capturing a moment with animation and spirit.” – Bill Cunningham, The Times, 2002

The passing of legendary photographer Bill Cunningham