I don't imagine people really associate me with fashion. I aspire to look respectable and thanks to my three fashionable sisters and my mother I have some vague instincts about fashion which seem to serve me well enough, but I couldn't articulate why. At age 83, Bill Cunningham, a street fashion photographer based in New York, has had a sense of fashion all his life. After watching the truly delightful documentary film about him,
Bill Cunningham New York, what I really aspire to do, more than be fashionable, is to love life as much as Bill Cunningham loves it.
Although he has a sense of fashion, you wouldn't know it by looking at him. Usually he's seen on the streets of New York with a plain blue jacket he buys two or three at a time for $5 a piece, a pair of plain khaki-colored pants, and comfortable black shoes, with a camera hanging from his neck and a cheap bike in tow (he's had dozens stolen through the years while about his business). Bill Cunningham is known for capturing cutting edge fashion as caught by his camera's eye (he still uses film and won't switch to digital) on the streets of New York. He authors two weekly fashion columns for the New York Times. He's a legend in the New York fashion scene, and therefore across the world. Rather than wearing it himself, though, he's known for finding and displaying the trends on the street, never regarding the station of the wearer, and often focusing on the clothes completely, cutting out everything but the most interesting piece he finds. He loves the eccentric and the new. Indeed, he never judges others and seems to find the most uniquely dressed people in the city. And he has fun. All the time.
But I wouldn't be telling you all of this because of the clothes. The reason I get interested in Bill's view on clothes is because of the love he exudes for his job and the sheer dedication and focus he has on this one thing. Taking pictures is all he does all day, every day. And he scoffs at the idea of doing anything else.
Bill Cunningham New York is by far my favorite documentary, and its because the way the filmmaker, Richard Press, highlights the joy of someone completely dedicated to his work - including its rewards and its costs - that you want to keep watching. Bill Cunningham is the type of guy who might say his work is never finished. He feels the immediacy of his routine and by watching him you might wish you could try on his shoes as he attacks life with energy and fervor. In part, this is because of the benefits you see from his dedication.
Through obsessively flinging himself into his work, which he enjoys without end, Bill has been able to successfully avail himself of those carnal desires that so many of us find so difficult to recuse ourselves of, either through excess or desire: wealth, food, and sex. He doesn't care about money. Decades ago when he sold his magazine,
Details, he was hounded by the purchaser for weeks afterwards to cash his check from the sale. He says when you take money then you lose freedom. He laughs, "Money is what's cheap. Freedom's more expensive." Although he spends most nights taking pictures at high society functions and charity balls in New York, he never partakes of the free gourmet food. Never married, when asked if he has ever had a romantic relationship he replies, "It just would never occur to me to think of it." He bypasses these things with seeming effortlessness. It does seem, however, that in avoiding those desires he may also have missed out on a few of life's most rewarding experiences. Later, when he opens up, you wonder if he is thinking the same thing.
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| His home for decades was an apartment at Carnegie Hall filled to capacity with nothing but file cabinets documenting decades of photographs. He, along with the other artist residents, were forced to relocate. |
Still, it is tempting to follow his format when you see all the things in life he avoids, crossing himself in everything else except for his work. He is a lean, mean, fashion-finding machine. But don't think his love for fashion is about fame or stature or acclaim. He's had opportunity for all those things and waved them aside without a second thought, just so he could get one more good shot. He's on speaking terms with the editor-in-chief of Vogue and international ambassadors, but seems to regard them the same as anyone else. We get an outside perspective on Bill from a cast of Bill's admirers, from industry experts to subjects of his photography; from neighbors to colleagues. You might say, if this were a different type of film, that it seems a bit one-sided, but the closest to negative feelings towards Bill I think anyone could have might be indifference.
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| Shail Upadhya, Diplomat from Nepal and a regular subject of Bill |
One high point in the movie comes when, after much persuasion by friends and colleagues, he reluctantly accepts a lifetime achievement award in France. This a prestigious occasion. But he's in his same-old blue jacket accepting a medal from a worldwide leader in fashion during Fashion Week in Paris. True to form, in his acceptance speech he spouts pure gratitude and humility. He says its not about the celebrity or the spectacle. It's about the clothes. He says, "It's as true today as it ever was..." And then, in one of only two parts in the film where he really opens up on a deeper emotional level, his voice cracks as he says, "He who seeks beauty will find it." And in that moment you know he means it and truly seeks after it as much as you do for whatever it is that you find most true in life. And you really love him for it.
The other time is when he's asked about religion. A Catholic by upbringing, he still attends church every Sunday. He briefly mentions his family, saying they were simple and that although they didn't really understand his penchant for hats, they were good people. He still holds to what they taught him. His attendance at weekly mass is perhaps his only break from work in life besides sleeping. After getting choked up and hesitating for half a minute he says, "I think its a good thing." His responses to this question and others about his military service (he thinks its a duty and was proud to do it), love (he wouldn't have thought of it), and money (no need for it), all point to a practical man with traditional values that has a set of principles but would shy away from ever imposing those on others. He does what works for him. And after watching, you're a bit more dedicated in finding what works for yourself.
