Bill Cunningham New York

“When fashion fans talk about street style these days, they’re likely to drop the names of Scott Schuman, Yvan Rodic aka The Facehunter or Garance Doré . But most of them forget about a true pioneer in this field, 80-year-old New York Times photographer Bill Cunningham, who now gets the credit he deserves in new documentary Bill Cunningham New York.”

- The Independent (UK) (“ New documentary honors streetstyle visionary”)

This is the truth, at least for me! I didn't know who Bill Cunningham was until today...browsing the net you'll know for sure all the names above, their photos, blogs etc...but apparently they're not the first ones to enter this kind of job. Mr Cunningham is more than 80 now, started photograph because his love for clothes and writes his column for The New York Times since many many years. He took portraits of famous and not people only if they're wearing something interesting.  Now we can understand more about street-style photography from the true pioneer thanks to Richard Press who directed this documentary. They used a small, consumer-grade, high-definition Canon and took 10 years to make it since Mr. Cunningham was not very cooperative at the beginning. 

"This is a man who seems to be moderate in everything except his pursuit of fashion and his consumption of film; a photographer who won’t put down his camera even when he’s the guest of honor (“You think I’m going to miss a good picture?”) and won’t pick up his camera just because Catherine Deneuve is passing by. “She wasn’t wearing anything interesting.” 
 Richard Press

The  Bill Cunningham New York  opens at the film forum in NY on march 16, 2011 and the NUART in LA on march 25, before opening around the country. What about Italy?? For now, no playings are fixed...hope to watch this interesting film!

trailer

p.s.= I like the fact that he always moves through NY streets with his bike :)!

Erika