Bill Cunningham

[Noor]

Bill Cunningham died. I am bummed.
I have been a fan of his for as long as I can remember.
He is the only reason I view the NYTimes website every week.
He had a great eye, and sense of humor. Fashion to him was what he found interesting not what advertisers or designers wanted to push.
Somewhere I have an old William J hat of his that I picked up during my travels.
He was an independent, non-conformist who lived life on his terms.

 

[neci]

 

[IrezumiKiss]

Bill Cunningham died. I am bummed.
I have been a fan of his for as long as I can remember.
He is the only reason I view the NYTimes website every week.
He had a great eye, and sense of humor. Fashion to him was what he found interesting not what advertisers or designers wanted to push.
Somewhere I have an old William J hat of his that I picked up during my travels.
He was an independent, non-conformist who lived life on his terms.

I was about to start a thread on him as soon as I heard the news, but got caught up in other.

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1727193.1395264300!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/gallery_1200/bill-cunningham-facades-exhibition.jpg

http://esentatare.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/bill_cunningham_newyork-960x638.jpeg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/f5/33/de/f533de55f28c4794f80406dbc2b18702.jpg https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/49/d9/2e/49d92e78810e409aa002e6da3365cb65.jpg

He's one of the excellence watermarks I chase and can't ever reach. He just didn't do his craft, he was living the walk he walked, always out there on that bike.

Amazing talent, inimitable eye. I wish the society and the generations of now could live up to his standard, but I really don't think that's gonna happen. Nobody wants to put in that kind of quality work and outlook in news media when the instant noodle and disposable utensil culture of today won't pay for it anymore and doesn't give a damn between a Helmut Newton and a blurry iPhone snap.

 

[MichaelinChina]

Never heard of him until now. But from what I gather from what you guys have said above, he was highly respected and the last of his kind.

And one of a kind.

Vale.

 

[Noor]

"He didn’t go to the movies. He didn’t own a television. He ate breakfast nearly every day at the Stage Star Deli on West 55th Street, where a cup of coffee and a sausage, egg and cheese could be had, until very recently, for under $3. He lived until 2010 in a studio above Carnegie Hall amid rows and rows of file cabinets, where he kept all of his negatives. He slept on a single-size cot, showered in a shared bathroom and, when he was asked why he spent years ripping up checks from magazines like Details (which he helped Annie Flanders launch in 1982), he said: “Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty and freedom is the most expensive.”

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Read the NY Times notice.
I want to see if there are bits of the documentary, somewhere.
He was not crushed down, by the pressure to conform.
Maybe, that is why he lived so long.

 

[Noor]

Read the NY Times notice.
I want to see if there are bits of the documentary, somewhere.
He was not crushed down, by the pressure to conform.
Maybe, that is why he lived so long.

How about the whole thing?
https://youtu.be/NVEv8FoRzf0

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

I just felt finished watching the preview for the film.
Perfect!

 

[IrezumiKiss]

"He didn’t go to the movies. He didn’t own a television. He ate breakfast nearly every day at the Stage Star Deli on West 55th Street, where a cup of coffee and a sausage, egg and cheese could be had, until very recently, for under $3. He lived until 2010 in a studio above Carnegie Hall amid rows and rows of file cabinets, where he kept all of his negatives. He slept on a single-size cot, showered in a shared bathroom and, when he was asked why he spent years ripping up checks from magazines like Details (which he helped Annie Flanders launch in 1982), he said: “Money’s the cheapest thing. Liberty and freedom is the most expensive.”

I don't agree on ripping up checks, if that honestly happened...you can put that capital into something else...ripping up checks, that's a Dodo Bird-rare privilege very very few people can actualize and not feel loss, even when they can afford the cost of living. Especially living in New York City.

But I do appreciate his dedicated discipline, gate and attitude towards making less more. That you do need, if you want to keep being you in a world that constantly tries to make you not you.

 

[Noor]

I don't agree on ripping up checks, if that honestly happened...you can put that capital into something else...ripping up checks, that's a Dodo Bird-rare privilege very very few people can actualize and not feel loss, even when they can afford the cost of living. Especially living in New York City.

But I do appreciate his gate and attitude. That you do need, if you want to keep being you in a world that constantly tries to make you not you.

I think he was just reinvesting in the case of Details. For most of his time in New York he lived in a rent controlled studio in Carnegie Hall with a shared bath.
He wore a very minimal wardrobe, and he was a freelancer. I guess he thought the loss was bearable in exchange for his freedom. He eventually joined the Times outright as an employee in his 80's after he got hit with by car for health insurance.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

That was his work, in the NY Times, for all of those years ?!
It was always fun to look at the different shots of a little collection.
"This is happening, now." On the streets, the sidewalks...
These colors, these patterns, these styles. On real people.

 

[Noor]

That was his work, in the NY Times, for all of those years ?!
It was always fun to look at the different shots of a little collection.
"This is happening, now." On the streets, the sidewalks...
These colors, these patterns, these styles. On real people.

Yes. That was Bill Cunningham.

 

[gotsnowgotslush]

Was so late, when I finished watching part of it.
Now that we have the interwebs, so much more can be known.
Hopefully, I will have time to watch the rest.

Thank you for posting the link.

 

[Noor]

Something else to watch.

Interview at 92nd Street Y

 

[Noor]

I don't agree on ripping up checks, if that honestly happened...you can put that capital into something else...ripping up checks, that's a Dodo Bird-rare privilege very very few people can actualize and not feel loss, even when they can afford the cost of living. Especially living in New York City.

But I do appreciate his dedicated discipline, gate and attitude towards making less more. That you do need, if you want to keep being you in a world that constantly tries to make you not you.

I think he was just reinvesting in the case of Details. For most of his time in New York he lived in a rent controlled studio in Carnegie Hall with a shared bath.
He wore a very minimal wardrobe, and he was a freelancer. I guess he thought the loss was bearable in exchange for his freedom. He eventually joined the Times outright as an employee in his 80's after he got hit with by car for health insurance.

After watching the interview I just posted, I found out that he was eventually persuaded to accept the check.

 

[thør]

Bill flew me and some others to a duck shack across the inlet in his Widgeon back in the early '70's. I'm sure it was a different Bill Cunningham.

Regardless, here is a photo of the plane as it was when I flew in it:

http://www.wdaguy.com/widgeons/CN1260-6-500.jpg

She now sits in the Air and Space Museum in Florida.