bill cunningham new york
He saw the power of the street way before anybody did. ? Richard Press
Before Tommy Ton and Scott Schuman there was Bill Cunningham, the grandfather of street style photography. Well into his eighties, the photographer has been riding his bike around the streets of New York shooting for his 'On the Street' and 'Evening Hours' style column for The New York Times since the sixties. He's become a fashion legend for his ability to pick trends on the street before the designers have even had time to come up with them. Richard Press' film Bill Cunningham New York gives us an inside glimpse into Bill's very private life. We caught up with the director to chat about his two years spent filming one of New York's most elusive and enigmatic figures.
Sophie Bosch: Bill Cunningham New York was ten years in the making, why was it such an extended process?
Richard Press: It was eight years of trying to convince Bill to let us film him and that really is in keeping with who he is as a person. He's just so humble, modest and shy, and he just could never understand why anyone would want to make a movie about him. Also, in terms of his work, it's very important for Bill to be invisible as a photographer. For 30 years on the street he has been invisible and he feels like that's the way he can do his job best. He's not looking for anyone to sort of celebrate him in any way and so he's afraid that the movie might make him more of a public figure, which is the last thing he wants.
What made you persevere for such a long time ?
I just knew that he is so unique as a person, and he's such a rare bird and kind of a dying breed. He's such a bohemian in the way he lives his life, his values, I thought it just needed to be documented. People need to know who Bill is as a person and who the man is beyond his body of work. Though even when he agreed, we were always trying to get his cooperation throughout the year, it wasn't like he said yes and then just gave us access; it was always a negotiation.
You also managed to get some pretty elusive New Yorkers to appear on camera to talk about Bill. What do you think made them so willing?
It wasn't about us, they did it for Bill. He's beloved and people also realize that he's so important as a photographer and an artist. Anybody we wanted to interview was willing, some of those people never appear on camera, someone like Annette de la Renta does not appear in movies but they all did it for Bill.
There's very little biographical information about him included in the film. Was that intentional?
I mean, for me, the main thing was that I wasn't interested in making a biopic. I felt like the basic facts of Bill's life were really enough, I wanted the movie to be more about a celebration of who he is as a person and try to capture something about his essence as opposed to the movie stops and here's all this biographical information. Also I don't even think that that's important to Bill, knowing where he grew up exactly, how many brothers and sisters he had, I don't even think he defines himself by that. He's so re-defined himself and created himself away from where he came from I just think it doesn't matter to who he is today.
You were filming Bill often while he was engrossed in his work, which is really interesting to see. Were you sometimes surprised afterwards by what he managed to capture in his photographs that you didn't realise at the time that he was focusing on?
Yeah, I'd be on the street shooting and after a while I could kind of tell if he might shoot somebody he was approaching on the street, but I could never quite figure out what it was he was focusing on. And then after a week of filming him on the street, there's this column on everybody wearing these severe high-heeled shoes and I had no idea that was what he was putting together in his brain. When you realise what he actually is seeing and what he's concentrating on, it's kind of genius.
What do you think motivates him as a photojournalist to do it every week?
It's just him, it's his passion. I think he really loves seeing how people dress and how people put clothes together, and I think it gives him pleasure and it's just something that he wants to share with people. That was what was really interesting about that footage from the eighties in the film, what is it like 30 or 40 years ago, he basically looks the same, he's wearing the same clothes, he's doing the same thing and he's just as happy now as he was then doing it. So, I think Bill has taken a vow of fashion, that's his calling in life, it's almost a religious calling and I think that's just what it is. What's amazing about it is that it really does make him happy, truly happy.
Until recently Bill lived in a very small studio above Carnegie Hall, and he was there for 50 years. Do you think you could ever take on a lifestyle that extreme for your work?
That's really something I think about all the time after having made the movie. You wake up every day and how do you live with purpose and ethics and honesty and all of those things that Bill is an exemplar of. I mean I couldn't live that way, I like having a kitchen and a bathroom in my apartment. On the other hand, the thing that I would take away from my experience of making the movie, is just to try to really do your work for the right reasons, in terms of ethics and getting joy from it and being committed to it, and if you don't like doing it then don't do it. The reason to do your work is because it makes you happy and you feel like you're contributing something. He really is in that way inspirational; he's sort of the golden standard. I don't know many people who could live with such purity and purpose the way that he does. It's something to aspire to.
What made you notice Bill and caused you to start this project? Did he ever photograph you for his column?
I grew up in New York and I grew up reading The New York Times and so I knew Bill's column since forever but I didn't know who the person was behind the byline. Then when I first started making films I was working as a graphic designer at The New York Times to support my filmmaking and I met Bill because I worked with him on his page. Philip Gefter, the Producer and I were in the column for the first and only time because his movie was the opening night film at the New Directors New Films (NDNF) Festival at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and Bill came to the opening of the film festival. It was this red carpet thing and Anna Wintour was there, it was a gala and he came and covered the opening event but left before his movie screened.
Oh wow!
Yeah, and then he put photographs of me and the producer in the column but he never mentioned that the opening night movie of this film festival was his movie, so nobody could figure out why I was in the column. It was very charming!
Do you view Bill as the patriarch of street style photography and blogs that are so prominent now? Do you think he was the original?
Yeah, he's been doing it since the sixties and I think he was the first person to realise how important the street is and its dialogue between designers and what people then do with the clothes and what things then emerge from the street that designers pick up on. He saw the power of the street way before anybody did. I think he really is the pioneer or the grandfather, whatever word you want to use. I think he was the first to see its importance and to document it.
Bill Cunningham New York is in cinemas on November 3rd.
Words: Sophie Bosch
www.zeitgeistfilms.com/billcunninghamnewyork
Sophie Bosch
