Bill Cunningham New York

Greetings again from the darkness. Well my fashion sense is limited to jeans, a t-shirt and tennis shoes. I would not be one's first choice to discuss the industry of fashion photography. However, that's not what this documentary is really about. Instead of focusing on the photographs of Bill Cunningham, director Richard Press shoots the man at work and in life ... the two being indistinguishable for Mr. Cunningham.

If you aren't familiar with his name, you are not alone. Bill Cunningham has a long running NY TIMES page where his photographs are displayed. He also has a feature called "On The Street", where he records commentary for his photographs - this can be heard on the website. Still, none of that tells you much about this man.

The film opens abruptly with video of Cunningham at work. He is alternatingly riding his bicycle and sprint-walking as he weaves through the sea of taxis and humanity in downtown Manhattan. His trusty camera is always around his neck as he continues his quest for fashion on the street ... fashion sense in the working people of the city. His eye is sharp and quick. We never know what he will hone in on. Maybe a never-before-seen winter coat, a flamboyant hat, or even a pair of heels that a woman is sporting. The man is over 80 years old and his eye and mind still quickly process what he deems worthy of notice.

Once again, none of those words do justice to this man or his story. He lives an incredibly humble life in a studio apartment within the confines of Carnegie Hall. Yes, as the film takes place, he is among the last of the remaining residents of the great hall. We learn management has determined that the few residents will be moved out of the building and relocated to other apartments nearby. We meet one of the other residents ... the fascinating "Duchesss of Carnegie", Editta Sherman. She has lived there for 60 years and it has been her home and photography studio. She made her living shooting celebrities and we catch a glimpse of her amazing work ... including a short video of her dancing in the 60's - filmed by Andy Warhol! Ms. Sherman's space is palatial compared to Cunningham's. His small studio apartment is crammed with metal file cabinets, each loaded with decades worth of photographs and negatives ... a real history of New York fashion. His bed is a twin mattress held up by books and crates - no kitchen, and a community bathroom. "Humble existence" is an understatement.

We learn from Mr. Cunningham that his work is divided into three parts: his street work, fashion shows, and charity events. He makes it clear that celebrities bore him and he is much more interested in how the everyday person uses fashion in their real life. Still, early on, we get comments from Vogue editor, Anna Wintour about how Cunningham's eye impacts the fashion world. She gives him much credit. We also get quickies from Tom Wolfe, Annie Flanders and even Brooke Astor to see how easily Cunningham fits in with the upper crust, despite his connection to the street. There is even a segment in Paris where he is honored by the French Order of Art and Letters ... and he "works" his own event! But it's the street where he is most at home. He says he is on his 29th bicycle ... the first 28 were stolen. He states this with the same enthusiasm that he shoots his subjects. The man is a constant smile and quick with banter, yet we learn just how alone he really is. When asked about his friends, family, lovers ... he momentarily breaks down only to regroup and express his love for what he does - it's not work, it's pleasure.

By the end, it's clear that while so many people respect the man and his work, no one really knows him. He lets his pictures stand as the testament to decades of documenting the colors and patterns and style of New Yorkers.

I wasn't sure how I felt going into Bill Cunningham New York. I thought to myself this is a man who goes around New York photographing men and women wearing their attire, and doing a lot of cutting and pasting into making it a weekly section in The New York Times. But I also thought that this couldn't be the end of the story. Something about Bill Cunningham had to be interesting, creative, and unique to get his own film.

Thankfully, I thought correctly, and now am fully intrigued by the life of eighty-year old Bill Cunningham. His job is not only a different one, but one he tirelessly continues to do as he rides around on his twenty-ninth Schwinn bicycle up and down lower Manhattan to photograph boots, hats, scarfs, clothes, pants, etc. This is a man who through thick and thin keeps on smiling. You'd never know he was having a bad day because he'd most likely smile during that too.

Bill lives in a tiny, rent-controlled apartment in Carnegie Hall where there is no kitchen, but dozens of file cabinets filled with negatives and positives of photos he's taken over the past several years. He sleeps on a mattress that lies on top of several more file cabinets. All I can say is if you think you're a dedicated lawyer, do you sleep on your briefcase? The film is 90% about Bill and his photography, and the other 10% tries to nudge him in the side trying to dig deeper in his personal life when he won't let you. We keep asking questions like "Is Bill straight?," "Does he date?," and etc, but we get little to no answers. Maybe because this is a documentary about his work not his personal life. But the neglection of something a documentary on a specific person needs, a little background, just brings this gem down a tad bit.

Bill explains how when he was a young child, at Church on Sundays, instead of listening to the preacher he'd be too busy staring at other people's hats. This shows that his passion for fashion, a relatively eclectic thing, started early and never held up.

Many of us work at a job that keeps us satisfied and puts food on the table. Bill works a job that keeps him over-joyed and puts food on his floor next to his file-cabinets. Rarely do a lot of people truly love what they are doing, but Bill is one of them. He's a person who if you watch be happy for a while, it begins to make you smile. He's the kind of person that just fills you with glee.

Bill Cunningham New York is short and sweet, but still leaves many questions unanswered that I'm sure will remain unanswered forever. Bill is a closed book, but open if you ask him anything about fashion. He's a mirror-image of what you can become if you take life on the slow track and live a very basic, yet eventful life. It's almost inspiring with its storytelling of just a simple, yet so complex man of interest.

Starring: Bill Cunningham. Directed by: Richard Press.

Wonderful film about the misunderstood and often contradictory peculiarities of the fashion world. Bill himself is an everyday man strikingly distinct from some of the outrageous fashions on display in contemporary New York yet he is respected ans one of the most enduring authorities on fashion today. His simple and discreet way of living as embodied by his spare and modest studio in Carnegie hall (a stark contrast in itself) illustrates Cunningham's principles on fashion itself: "It's not the celebrity, the spectacle, it's the clothes."

What is also insightful is how tends and set and grow organically out on the street, not on some fashion runway (although it remains a fascination for Bill). The idea that fashion is not just for the rich and famous, but for the everyday person is exemplified by the "bag ladies" of new york, the "water bottle", "baggy jeans", and 80s fashion; it's lovely to see Bill pay tribute to these somewhat eccentric trends in the column that also charts the who's who of high society in New York as if to say "these are our people, and this is our culture, no matter who you are."

Bill is a charming and enigmatic character, still going strong at 80(!) years and heartwarming to see with so much respect amongst his peers. The city of New York is a character itself as always, the variety of fashion and cultures is incredibly rich and entertaining. He shows that there are many good people in high society who donate themselves to charitable and artistic institutions; yet while he becomes involved in that world of riches he remains cautious about becoming too involved dedicating himself solely to the art of fashion.

While Bill concedes he may not have lived the ideal life (and I think the interviewer probes just a little too close), his life remains immensely rich from his friends and connections, one in which he has almost free rein to document his passions, ironically without the material things fashion itself can exemplify. He is such an enigmatic and joyous character that one can only believe his is greatly fulfilled by life, and only wrongly assume, he is missing out on anything.

Bill Cunningham is an influential and beloved fashion photographer working at the New York Times but very few people actually know him. He has been photographing the fashion seen on the streets for around 30 years. He rides his bicycle. He eats cheap food. He doesn't spend money on clothes. His small Spartan apartment is filled with file cabinets holding all his negatives. He doesn't care about money. He and his friend Editta Sherman are getting evicted. At his core, he is obsessed with fashion and photographing the changing style in New York. It's a fascinating portrait. It also doesn't shy away from the obvious personal questions. It comes later in the movie just as the lack of personal life starts to be prominent. It reveals the real person behind the camera.

Bill Cunningham New York (2010)

*** (out of 4)

Nice documentary cover photographer Bill Cunningham who rides around New York City on his bicycle taking pictures of everyone from your average person on the street to some higher known people. We follow Bill as he rides around the city, working on the streets and in his office and we also learn about his personal life including him living at Carnegie Hall. I'll admit that I really wasn't familiar with Cunningham in any way so I went into this documentary rather blind. I found the movie to be fascinating mainly because Cunningham is such an interesting figure. I will admit that fans of photography will probably enjoy this a lot more than I did because that subject is just something that has never really interested me. However, as a character study I found myself entertained throughout the majority of the running time. I enjoyed watching how Cunningham would just ride around town snapping shots of what he found interesting. I thought it was rather fun seeing how he would show his work and what he would or wouldn't want to do with it. It was interesting hearing his thoughts about a magazine who went against his wishes and showed "normal" people as being something less than the more famous ones he photographed. Overall, fans of Cunningham should really love this look at the man, his work and his thoughts. Others should still be entertained even if they're not familiar with the man or care about the work he does.