Octogenarian Bill Cunningham, the fascinating if sometimes reluctant subject of Richard Press’ documentary, is less a fashion photographer than a dedicated urban anthropologist, chronicling both streetwear and high-society galas in his two weekly columns for the New York Times’ Sunday Styles section.
The Times-sponsored “Bill Cunningham New York” doesn’t spell out his exact status at the paper. Cunningham still shoots on film, then has it developed at a Times Square variety store. He leads a monk-like existence that is threatened by his eviction from a tiny studio in the former Carnegie Hall Studios, crammed with filing cabinets and boxes, that he’s occupied for half a century.
His longtime skills as a trend spotter — launched when the legendary fashion editor Charlotte Curtis assigned him to shoot a ’60s be-in in Central Park (in black and white, he notes) — are praised by such notable talking heads as Anna Wintour and Tom Wolfe.
Seen tooling around Manhattan on his bicycle and covering fashion shows in Paris (where a functionary informs a security guard that he’s “the most important person on the planet,” and he refuses to sit with the other photographers in the back), Cunningham talks freely about his passion for fashion and photography.
He’s particularly animated when discussing the days when Details magazine allotted him spreads that ran more than
100 pages, but doesn’t talk about his famous split from Women’s Wear Daily after it added snarky captions to some of his photos.
The veteran photographer is even less forthcoming about his personal life. We learn from club kid Kenny Kenny that Cunningham was once a milliner. Cunningham waves aside questions about his sexuality, but eventually admits he’s never been in a serious relationship — and that his working-class Catholic family thought fashion was an “unmanly” pursuit.