Bill Cunningham has been a street photographer for the New York Times for more than 40 years. No, he does not take pictures of streets. He takes pictures of people on streets, and at fancy parties, and with his aged bicycle, his wispy white hair and his single-mindedness, he could easily be viewed as a dirty old man who spends his days taking pictures of women's legs and shoes.
There's a lot of that in "Bill Cunningham New York," which opens here today, but anyone who has looked at the Style section in the Sunday Times through the years has seen the results. They're simply wonderful. They are both posed and candid shots, but since Cunningham seems to know everyone in Manhattan worth knowing and/or photographing, it all works.
A former hat and clothing designer, Cunningham seeks beauty, and also the unusual. People trust him not to use pictures that would embarrass the subjects, or make them look clumsy or awkward, so they willingly pose, or at least hold still. People in the fashion world understand his motive, and since many of them dress in peculiar ways aimed at fostering their individuality, or their image, they don't embarrass easily.
Philip Gefter, Richard Press and Tony Cenicola, the latter also a Times photographer, followed Cunningham around Manhattan, and to Paris, for a couple of years, filming and taping and watching and talking to Cunningham and his favorite subjects, like Anna Wintour, Tom Wolfe, Iris Apfel and her huge glasses, Patrick McCarthy, Kim Hastraiter and Editta Sherman. Sherman, also a photographer, and Cunningham were the last two people to maintain apartments in Carnegie Hall before they were evicted and the building remodeled. Cunningham now lives on Central Park South, though he had the kitchen removed from his apartment so he could have more storage space. At Carnegie Hall, he did not have a kitchen and used a bathroom down the hall.
And in the midst of a world where people dress to the nines for any occasion, and sometimes for no occasion, Cunningham's costume is ultimately casual, topped with the same blue work jacket that Parisian street cleaners wear. "It has lots of pockets," he says.
Cunningham is somewhere between dedicated and obsessed, but he has had his own impact on the Big Apple, and he is always himself, as the filmmakers show to perfection.
Bill Cunningham New York opens today at the Tivoli.