Bill Cunningham

Delightful, enthusiastic, friendly, determined, shy, gentle, kind, generous. These are only a few words that describe Bill Cunningham, New York street photographer. Clothing was the thing that turned his head. He never tired of photographing the clothes that women wore. “The best fashion is on the street,” he said. “I love to document!”

Born in Boston in 1929, William J. Cunningham’s interest in fashion began at an early age. “I could never concentrate on Sunday church services because I’d be concentrating on women’s hats,” he said. At age 19, Cunningham moved to New York City and set up as a milliner. He was later drafted into the army for the Korean War and stationed in Paris, France. He loved Paris for its high fashion. Upon returning to New York, he continued making hats until 1962, when he merged his interests in fashion and photography to document the fashion of the day, including Diane Vreeland’s fashion exhibitions at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

He found that fashion shows didn’t tell the whole story. “I realized that you didn’t know anything unless you photographed the shows and the street,” he said, “to see how people interpreted what designers hope they would buy… The street was the missing ingredient.” Shifting the lens from the catwalk to the street was a new approach and mostly due to Cunningham.

His story about Greta Garbo’s coat is telling. “I got to know Arthur Gelb [of the New York Times], and one day I told him about this woman I had been photographing on the street. She wore a Nutria coat, and I thought: “Look at the cut of that shoulder. It’s so beautiful.” And it was a plain coat, too… Anyway, I was taking her picture, and I saw people turn around, looking at her. She crossed the street, and I thought, Is that? Sure enough, it was Greta Garbo. All I had noticed was the coat and the shoulder.”

“I’m not a real photographer,” he said, “I’m a fashion historian… People in the real world say you’re an embarrassment to photography. But I never said I was a photographer. I think of myself as a fashion historian. That’s what I’m interested in and the camera is another way to record it.”

Starting in 1978, his photographs appeared in the New York Times, in the column On the Streets. The spread was hugely popular.

His “main perch” in New York City was the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street. He’d stand for hours with his camera, watching for style. His favorites subjects included Vogue models Della Russo and Piaggi. Another model, Anna Wintour, once quipped, “We all get dressed for Bill.” He became a New York icon, riding his bicycle, wearing a blue workman’s jacket, always carrying his camera. He died of a stroke in 2016, aged 87 years. He was well-loved and is greatly missed. In his honor, the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street was temporarily renamed “Cunningham’s Corner.”

Several documentaries about Cunningham tell of his biography, work, and many associations. Take a look at The Times of Bill Cunningham, and Bill Cunningham New York.

“Fashion is not frivolous,” he said. “Fashion is as vital and as interesting today as ever. I know what people with a more formal attitude mean when they say they’re horrified by what they see on the street. But fashion is doing its job. It’s mirroring exactly our times.”

A photographer could document any number of trends that reflect the times: homes, hairstyles, cars, technology, or, like Cunningham, clothes. Clothing is practical, but also signifies what is culturally and psychologically important. It’s a language of its own. How people spend their time and money reflects what they care about. What people photograph also reflects what they care about.

What do I care about? These are the issues to photograph.