Cunningham has spent the past 50 years cycling New York’s streets in search of eye-catching looks. Cutting a familiar figure in his blue workman’s smock (he buys the Parisian street sweepers’ uniform in bulk during Paris Fashion Week ), he rides from uptown to down hunting out trends for his weekly ‘On the Street’ columns, then spends his evenings documenting the city’s most soigné events for the ‘Evening Hours’ social pages.
The original model for so many of today’s street-style snappers has a voracious eye that compels him to capture everything from Harlem teenagers to well-preserved society ladies. The late Brooke Astor was so fond of Cunningham that she insisted he attend her 100th birthday party. And whereas most photographers huddle on the bleachers at the end of the runway during fashion week, Cunningham’s decades of fashion devotion have earned him a front-row seat. One press representative at a Paris show covered by the documentary whisks Cunningham inside ahead of the pack, scolding his junior, ‘This is the most important man in the world.’
Issuing Cunningham with the ultimate compliment, Anna Wintour told the documentary makers, ‘I have said many times that we all get dressed for Bill. He's been documenting me ever since I was a kid. And it's one snap, two snaps—or he ignores you, which is death.’
Not that Cunningham has let the esteem go to his head—far from it. The photographer leads an ascetic existence, living for the past 50 years in a studio flat overrun by negative-stuffed filing cabinets. The studio’s location in Carnegie Hall can’t smooth over the fact that it lacks a real bed, wardrobe, kitchen or bathroom (it’s down the hall).
Anyone who sees the film walks away a little bit in love with Cunningham, and in sympathy with a man who only wants to live simply and work well. One of the most heart-wrenching strands of the documentary plot involves Cunningham’s legal battle against eviction from Carnegie Hall, which planned to convert the remaining artist apartments into offices (the eviction proceeded after filming wrapped). Even the Carnegie grinches aren’t immune to Cunningham’s particular charm, it seems—the venue will honour its former resident with a gala event hosted by Oscar de la Renta and Sarah Jessica Parker this spring.
Cunningham, who refuses to accept something so paltry as a glass of water at the events he covers, clearly isn’t driven by money. He conducts his activities for the love of fashion, and has an eloquent rejoinder for anyone who would question his zeal for style.
‘The wider world perceives fashion as frivolity that should be done away with. The point is that fashion is the armour to survive everyday life,’ he said in an interview recorded in 1989. ‘I don’t think you can do away with it... it would be like doing away with civilisation.’
Bill Cunningham New York's London premiere was presented by Urbancode. The film will appear in select UK cinemas from 16 March. Find out more about the film here .
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