BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK
During my first week at NTU, part of our induction was to go to Nottingham's Broadway Cinema and watch the film titled 'Bill Cunningham New York'. I have to say it is definitely one of the most inspiring films I've ever seen.
Cunningham photographs people and the passing scene in the streets of Manhattan every day, focusing on their genuine usage of clothing to express personal style. He is known not to overly photograph celebrities (like the paparazzi) or people that use fame to showcase clothing they didn't originally pick themselves (sponsored, free clothing). Most of his pictures, he has said, are never published. "You see if you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do kid” he states that freedom is the most expensive thing, and money is the least.
BRIEF HISTORY
Born in Boston, Cunningham dropped
out of Harvard
University in 1948 and moved to New York City, where he
initially worked in advertising.
Not long after, he quit his job and struck out on his own, making hats under
the name ‘William J’. This business folded when he was drafted.
After serving a tour in the U.S. Army,
he returned to New York and started writing for the Chicago Tribune.
During his years as a writer he contributed
significantly to fashion
journalism. While working at the Tribune and at Women's Wear
Daily he began taking photographs of fashion on the streets of
New York. He published a group of impromptu pictures in the Times in
December 1978, which soon became a regular series. His editor, Arthur Gelb, has called
these photographs "a turning point for the Times, because it was the
first time the paper had run pictures of well-known people without getting
their permission”. He photographed socialites within the fashion industry such
as Anna Wintor, who speaks very highly of him within the ‘New York Documentary’.
"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”.
I think it will be one of those films that stays with me throughout my whole life.
Love Livy x
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