May well be of interest…….
Bill Cunningham New York
Wednesday, 11.30am, Sky Arts 1/Virgin CH 281 and Sky Arts 1 HD/Virgin CH 282. Also available after broadcast in Sky On Demand. Cert 12
Bill Cunningham’s impact on fashion photography has been immeasurable. A singular figure, he’s spent over 30 years snapping New York natives – famous and non-famous alike – looking their most fabulous. Can this documentary uncover the enigma behind those legendary fashion pages in The New York Times?
Richard Press, the filmmaker responsible, spent eight years trying to convince Cunningham to let rolling cameras into his life. The result is an illuminating documentary that’s less about fashion and more an insight into the day-to-day routine of a walking contradiction.
Cunningham doesn’t care for celebrity and shuns materialism, refusing to cash the cheques for his work (“If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do”). And yet he’s helped define an industry that thrives on both.
Press mostly allows the photographer to tell his own story. He’s a quote machine. But when the director ropes in Cunningham’s long-time friends and admirers such as Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief at US Vogue, we glimpse a changing world. Cunningham is inextricably linked with the magazine industry. They’re both struggling in the modern world.
New York may be changing, but this 84-year-old is doing what he’s always done: cycling around the city and photographing its snappiest dressers. It’s the tension between these two forces that makes Bill Cunningham: New York so compelling.
