Documentary Street Photography: Bill Cunningham New York

I saw Bill cunningham last Saturday 20th August on Park Ave (closed to car trafic) with his bicycle and taking pictures wearing his usual look like Chinese blue jacket.

First I did not know who he was and then noticed "how" he was taking pictures. I have not seen the movie mention in this thread but will asap.

This was an interesting moment. I was also on a bicycle and shooting with an Hasselblad loaded with 70mm film. Not a street photography equipment...

So I decided to stand on the side and watch the Man taking pictures. I could have stay there for hours.

I love New York!
 
Missed this when it was released but is now available from my cable provider. Really enjoyed it as did my wife who is not a camera aficionado. Not sure how Bill Cunningham stacks up against other street fashion photographers but his enthusiasm, obsession and commitment to his craft is peerless.
 
I enjoyed the movie and Cunningham is certainly a fascinating character. While it's great to see someone so passionate about what he does, I also thought the movie had a bit of a sad undertone regarding his personal life (or lack thereof).
 
It's a pity in that documentary that there were depths which went unexplored - or rather that Bill "breaking down" in the questions re: his sexuality and whether he has ever had partners ("friends") and whether his presumed abstinence was in some way related to his parents' opinions (they would have found fashion photography to be "effeminate" or not "manly") and a shame he carried in respect to this. As he was - at times - a seemingly unwilling subject, it may have been impossible to push harder for an explication of these issues ... but I felt it was one of the most important questions about Bill and how he - whilst lovely - DID obviously keep people at a distance. Obviously the filmmakers felt similarly - leaving it until they had built a relationship and garnered enough footage to complete their documentary, before even attempting to ask such questions, but I felt there were unexplored depths and unanswered questions which would have been obvious to any viewer, and which Bill didn't SEEM to have even asked himself. Great documentary where there was some disappointment that the main questions the viewer would pose went largely unacknowledged. The mystery may still have remained, and the questions wouldn't have been answered entirely - but damn, that was such an interesting 2 minutes in the documentary (so much more so than any preceding parts) and I would have liked a further exploration even if it led to no answers ...
 
SuperUJ said:
Saw Bill in action on the 5th Ave over the weekend and confirmed that he is shooting digital. And, BTW, what a great documentary!

John
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Oh, my...it appears Mr. Cunningham has indeed "gone electric" (and I don't mean the hue of his jacket, eye-catching as it is).

Of course, for about 1/3 of my week here in Montreal, people have seen me in the street using nothing but my Nikon P6000. Scared the pants off a friend or two, I tell ya...


- Barrett
 
I just saw this last night. It's available on Netflix. I streamed it to my tv.

No negatives re: "production values." It was certainly not 'dark' or amateurishly produced.

I had known about this for quite a while, but really wasn't interested. I've lived in Manhattan for 20+ years — i don't think i've ever seen the man. But, i watched, and enjoyed and loved it. It's inspiring — his devotion. His boundless energy. I'm 44, and cringe at the thought of bicycling everywhere in NYC. Crazy. From an event in SoHo all the way up to the Museum of Natural History? Then, home, through the Park? Was that all in one night? Working in between....

I thought there was enough respect paid, with regard to the 'awkward' questions at the end, about his personal life. The interviewer 'asked' if he could ask those questions, and i have no doubt they would have been edited out if Mr. Cunningham didn't approve. It is an interesting thing, his responses. I know it has nothing to do with the work, but this was a film about the man and his life. I was curious about those matters. It's amazing to me, that a person could live so long without some type of romantic entanglement. He admits he's "human," but seems to have decided to suppress those human urges. I would love to know WHY, but that's just the Psych major in me.

His working 'technique' is peculiar. All throughout, i wondered how he could get a single image in focus and without blurring it. He jerks the camera up, and then back, seemingly as he's exposing the frame. All manual focus, even though, later, he's got an AF 50/1.4 lens on his FM2. I don't see him focusing. Not sure how he does it when he's holding the potato masher in the left hand. Maybe it's all just preset ranges? But, he does seem to employ somewhat shallow DOF, so... i dunno. Magic, i suppose.

The man is engaging and delightful. I hope to see him sometime. I will certainly approach him, just to shake his hand.
 
CK Dexter Haven said:
I had known about this for quite a while, but really wasn't interested. I've lived in Manhattan for 20+ years — i don't think i've ever seen the man. But, i watched, and enjoyed and loved it. It's inspiring — his devotion. His boundless energy. I'm 44, and cringe at the thought of bicycling everywhere in NYC. Crazy. From an event in SoHo all the way up to the Museum of Natural History? Then, home, through the Park? Was that all in one night? Working in between....
Click to expand...

Ah, but I've been cycling the streets of Gotham for something going on 35 years now (with and without a camera). Not exactly for the particularly faint-of-heart, but a hell of a lot safer now than when I started rolling again as an adult.

I thought there was enough respect paid, with regard to the 'awkward' questions at the end, about his personal life. The interviewer 'asked' if he could ask those questions, and i have no doubt they would have been edited out if Mr. Cunningham didn't approve. It is an interesting thing, his responses. I know it has nothing to do with the work, but this was a film about the man and his life. I was curious about those matters. It's amazing to me, that a person could live so long without some type of romantic entanglement. He admits he's "human," but seems to have decided to suppress those human urges. I would love to know WHY, but that's just the Psych major in me.
Click to expand...

I thought the interviewer was highly respectful, even saying "You don't have to answer if you don't want to." I realize how tantalizing it might be to speculate over Cunningham's most-interior life, but the guy has always held this stuff close-to-the-vest, which of course seems terribly out of step with the blab-it-all ethos of the moment. Yes, he is a celebrity of sorts, however a reluctant one. But it came about purely from his work, and work ethic, both of which blow me away.

His working 'technique' is peculiar. All throughout, i wondered how he could get a single image in focus and without blurring it. He jerks the camera up, and then back, seemingly as he's exposing the frame. All manual focus, even though, later, he's got an AF 50/1.4 lens on his FM2. I don't see him focusing. Not sure how he does it when he's holding the potato masher in the left hand. Maybe it's all just preset ranges? But, he does seem to employ somewhat shallow DOF, so... i dunno. Magic, i suppose.
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I'm sure he has the hyperfocal thing down by now...it appears he's using an old-school prime on his current D-series Nikon. (Yeah, still a bit of a shock to see him packing a dSLR, but I can't see him slinging a big, zoom-endowed D700 or D3 like all the other Times cats and chicks are...if I ever do, I may need counseling.)

The man is engaging and delightful. I hope to see him sometime. I will certainly approach him, just to shake his hand.
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I've (briefly) met him in the distant past (see early footage in the doc...about that period). Cool guy then, cool guy now.


- Barrett
 
I actually don't think it's a bad thing that he's switched to digital now. I don't see anything in his work that would greatly benefit from being shot on film and shooting digital certainly makes it easier to do the edit.
 
Jamie123 said:
I actually don't think it's a bad thing that he's switched to digital now. I don't see anything in his work that would greatly benefit from being shot on film and shooting digital certainly makes it easier to do the edit.
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Yeah, I agree... I always wondered why he didn't switch earlier... except maybe the fact that he doesn't seem to like to buy things.
 
Caught this on Netflix last night (followed by Page One, the NYT doc). Thought it was pretty good, Cunningham is a very interesting character - but I could have done with fewer light interviews with rich fashionistas. Their take on the world/fashion is infinitely less interesting than hearing Cunningham talk about it himself.

The montage of puddle-jumping shots looked like it would make a strong body for a book by itself. Cunningham may not think of himself as a great photographer, but he definitely has an eye.

Felt much less bad about him losing his Carnegie Hall studio when I saw the apartment with a view directly on Central Park.
 
I just saw him yesterday... Hes always on 57th and 5th ave, see him a few times a week working... Ive even caught him chimpin... 🙂
He seems like a very private guy, dosnt make eye contact with anyone, always has his head down, the few times someone has recognized him, hes avoided it.. Everytime I walk by and see him, I take a shot, I have so many pictures of him, I might be able to make a behind the scenes book on him..
 
Has Bill really converted to digital? I photographed him a few weeks ago on Fifth avenue but I did not get a close look at his camera. The guys at Sunshine Color Labs (West 31st street) told me that he has his rolls developed there. See: http://www.yelp.com/biz/sunshine-color-lab-new-york Great place, check it out.

Bill's blue smock is a French workingman's uniform that allows a person, such as a factory worker, to keep his clothes clean. When I worked part time in a woodworking shop in Brooklyn, I always wore an apron, for the same reason. I think Bill's uniform indicates that he his serious about his work. Plus, the uniform provides lots of pockets for film.

The thing that struck me most about the film was Bill's kindness and empathy towards his subjects. He once quit Woman's Wear Daily because they used his photographs to belittle women who were emulating the fashion of models they had seen in runway shows. Bill's work is about celebrating creativity in dress, and feeling good about one's self as a result.

I think all the people on New York's social circuit are comfortable with Bill because they know that he will not use the camera as a weapon to demean them. I loved how Bill eats Chinese food before he goes to one of those fancy dinners because he is working and sees it as a conflict of interest to take food in that situation.

Bill is a treasure. His series, "On The Street", in the New York Times, is wonderful.
 
Larry Kellogg said:
Has Bill really converted to digital? I photographed him a few weeks ago on Fifth avenue but I did not get a close look at his camera. The guys at Sunshine Color Labs (West 31st street) told me that he has his rolls developed there. See: http://www.yelp.com/biz/sunshine-color-lab-new-york Great place, check it out.
Click to expand...

He's been seen and photographed around NYC with a Nikon digital...though I'm not sure if that is his tool of choice.
 
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