Richard Press
Introduction
2010 American documentary directed by Richard Press, Bill Cunningham New York limns the photographic practice of Bill Cunningham as he reports on fashion from the streets to the runway in a weekly New York Times column. Following 81-year-old Cunningham with his camera on his bike through the streets of New York, the film essays to confide an intimate portrait of a recondite man devoting his life to the daily chronicling of couture trends.
Emergent on the New York artistic scene after military service in 1948, Cunningham commences his artistic endeavors creating headwear, though he soon shifts to reportive photography. Diligently documenting the latest garments, his vigorous work ethic and ingenious passion for fashion are soon picked up by prominent persona including Details magazine’s Annie Flanders, New York Times fashion critic Charlotte Curtis, and later Anna Wintour. Often focussing on a recurrent motif, his reporting attempts to tease out contemporary trends and social relations, document them within a broader historical perspective and develop a richly valuable archival collection.
Depicting an overall marvelously celebratory zeal in the portrayal of a genuinely engaged individual, the documentary describes the artistic activities undertaken by Cunningham across a broad spectrum of social strata. Representing through his published photography both the latest independent, up-and-coming designers from downtown, Cunningham equally eagerly details high society networking events conveying virtues of timelessness, elegance, and philantropy.
More inquisitive personal episodes documented by Press coax out the complex portrait of a man impervious to the reconciling of his sexuality with his inherited duty to traditional values. Indebted catholic, the devotion accounting for his weekly mass attendance coincides with discomfort as he recounts his notion of love as never having had a personal relationship, ‘controlling body urges’, ‘few good friends’ and ‘not having time’. Moving Cunningham to tears in a strikingly unostentatious moment, the loyalty-ties to his religion seem to involve an important methodology he is unable to come to terms with from within the reality of his everyday life.
Cunningham, untethered by choice or force to incumbent traditional responsibilities, engages in an all-encompassing artistic practice in which the border between artistic merit and personal escapism is blurred. Out on the streets in any conditions, with a row of photograph-filled cabinets for a bed and a refusal to take money, a slight hint of self-flagellation underscores the enduring he undertakes for his artistic endeavor. Undefeatably upbeat and optimistic, Cunningham bears this chosen responsibility with enthusiasm, lightness and humor, both towards the subjects he portrays and the undertaking he endeavors, documenting forever these historical annals of New York City life.
As so sensibly mentioned by Anna Wintour, the figure of Cunningham embodies exaltant virtues of diligence, kindness, and resilience. Concurrently attuned to the elusive appearance of beauty he attains to capture on film, the absolute strength of his character and work ethic is matched only by his refined receptiveness to detail and vogue. As recurrent during the scenes at Paris Fashion Week; Cunningham pragmatically selects clothes that ‘women would actually wear’, effectively denunciating an incredibly valuable prediction of commercially-relevant fashion trends to come.
Undercut by upbeat jazzy tracks, the film succeeds exquisitely in the portrayal of the vivacious artistic tenancy Cunningham so devoutly represents. His generous, straightforward tenure illuminates the film in a frenetic enthusiasm for life, beauty, and freedom.
Conclusively reflecting the artist position in a society in turmoil with its fundamental value structures, the documentary depicts the dichotomy between tradition and current-day reality personified in the ethos of Bill Cunningham. In his astounding pursuit of the documentation of the fleeting, superficial phenomena of fashion, despite his undeniable wealth of historical knowledge and valuable insights, Cunningham’s practice construes an interesting insight into the extreme warping of devotion to the long-term cultivation of virtues and responsibility in contemporary society.