Elise Hawthorne
Bill Cunningham, fashion and street photographer for the New York Times has one of my dream jobs. At 84 years young, Bill photographs the daily passing parade of fashion on the streets of Manhattan.
Bill Cunningham by Laura Neilson
After taking a fortuitous photograph of Greta Garbo whilst working at Women’s Wear Daily, he began taking photos of street fashion and has been documenting this art form via his trusty camera ever since.
Bill is held in high esteem by the New York fashion elite, designer Oscar de la Renta has said, “More than anyone else in the city, he has the whole visual history of the last 40 or 50 years of New York. It’s the total scope of fashion in the life of New York.”
Always polite and never intrusive, Bill has his own special style; he travels around Manhattan by bicycle, wearing his favourite blue jacket.
A frugal man who lives simply, his bed fits snugly in between the filing cabinets in his small apartment in the Carnegie Hall building. In his own words, “Why the hell would anyone want a kitchen and a bathroom?”
In 2010, filmmaker Richard Press and Philip Gefter produced Bill Cunningham New York – in my mind, Bill is an international treasure to be celebrated.
Bill Cunningham New York trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYqiLJBXbss
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