Bill Cunningham (1929-2016), a Harvard dropout at 19, began photographing street fashion in 1966. His New York Times photography column, "On the Street," began in 1978. Wearing his signature blue jacket, he cycled through the streets of New York City in search of "the best fashion shows." For 50 years, his lens captured the public mindset and social change behind fashion.
Recently, the New York History Museum acquired its photographic archive and will hold an exhibition.
Bill Cunningham was born in 1929 into a conservative Irish Catholic family in Boston. At 19, he dropped out of Harvard and moved to New York, where he opened a hat shop and attracted a loyal celebrity following. In the early 1950s, Bill was drafted into the Army. Returning to New York, he began working as a columnist. At 37, photographer David Montgomery gifted him a $35 Olympus PEN film camera, launching his street photography career.
Bill, wearing his signature blue jacket, rides a bicycle with a camera around his neck in 2014
Since 1966, Bill has documented New York's street fashion. For 50 years, he's been on the streets of New York, rain or shine. Always dressed in a dark blue fisherman's jacket and khakis, he rides a beat-up bicycle, perched on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, capturing passersby with a vintage Nikon camera. At night, he photographs the evenings of fashionable society. Bill Cunningham said, "The best fashion shows come from the streets. It always has, and it always will. I always look forward to encountering street fashion."
Bill's first camera was a $39 half-frame camera on Easter Sunday 1967.
A photo of Bill as a young man sitting with a woman is included in his scrapbook, and it is noted that the day was Easter Sunday.
Bill's column, "On the Street," began in 1978 for The New York Times and has become a "floating world-e" of New York City, chronicling the city's visual history over the past few decades. For example, from bell-bottoms in the 1960s, jeans in the 1980s, to low-rise pants in the 1990s, Bill witnessed and faithfully documented these transformations, becoming the basis for the resurgence of trends. His insight into fashion trends has earned him the highest respect in the fashion world, earning him the title of "fashion historian."
Bill Cunningham on the street
Richard Price's documentary, We All Dressed for Bill, 2011
Director Richard Price filmed a documentary about Bill, "We All Dress Up for Bill," capturing his time photographing pedestrians. Bill lived in humble circumstances and ate simple food, but the documentary captures the 80-year-old's joyful street photography. He said, "I'm not just interested in the finery, but the mentality and social change behind the attire."
Women walking to work in sneakers during the 1980 transport strike, photographed by Bill Cunningham
Bill Cunningham's photograph of Edita Sherman at the Guggenheim Museum
Bill Cunningham photographs Ava Cherry and David Bowie at a Grammy party. Bill Cunningham, 1975
Bill Cunningham passed away in 2016 at the age of 87. A New York City intersection was named in his honor. Located at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, this intersection was a frequent spot for the elderly man, dressed in a blue jacket, riding a bicycle, and carrying a camera. Meanwhile, nearby boutique department store Bergdorf Goodman dedicated a series of window displays featuring Bill's signature blue jacket to commemorate this great street photographer.
After Bill's death, one can't help but wonder what the photographer would have thought when he heard that the New-York Historical Society had acquired his photographic archive, providing a permanent home for tens of thousands of photographs, negatives, slides, and memorabilia.
Bill photographed an elegant woman standing in front of Federal Hall
Bill's Photography
Bill's Photography
His photographic archive, managed by his niece and co-executor of his estate, Patricia Simonson, has been stored for years in rows of file boxes in the photographer’s studio above Carnegie Hall. The collection will be made accessible to scholars and researchers in a new gallery opening in 2026.
Louise Mirrer, director of the New-York History Museum, marveled at the diversity of the collection. She said, "Bill turned fashion into cultural anthropology. He felt the pulse of the city in every corner, photographing the glitz, the rich, the elite, and riding his bike along the way, capturing the things that fascinated him, like the rock scene or the parties downtown." "This is a kind of New York City history that's unique elsewhere," she said.
According to a Manhattan Surrogate's Court filing, Bill entrusted Simonson with the management of his $1 million estate. Simonson explained her choice of resting place for the photographic archive: "I felt it was nine years since Bill's death that it was time to find a fitting home for the photographs. I wanted to find a place where I could digitize his work and make it available for people to enjoy."
Bill's Photography
Bill's Photography
Bill's Photography
In 2009, Bill Cunningham was designated a "living landmark" by the New York Landmarks Conservancy, but he always remained low-key and humble, declining the Metropolitan Museum of Art's proposal to hold a retrospective for him, telling Harold Koda, the museum's then-curator of costume, that "it would be a distraction."
When the renowned fashion design consultant Fern Mallis asked him about his legacy in a 2014 interview, he responded: “Who thinks about legacy? I’m just a factory worker. All we think about in there is what we’re doing today.”
Bill attended the opening ceremony of the "Facade" exhibition in March 2014
Bill was photographed at the 2014 Metropolitan Museum of Art Charity Ball in New York.
Miller said Cunningham himself may have thought the New-York-based museum was a suitable venue for his work. He donated some of his memorabilia to the museum several years ago. She noted that the 2014 exhibition "Facades" featured Cunningham's photographs of models posing in period costumes in historical settings.
Bill Cunningham's iconic blue jacket
The New-York History Museum plans to exhibit Cunningham's "Evening Hours" later this year. His popular photographs for The New York Times document the city's charity galas and charitable events. Miller said the exhibition will be a prelude to a larger exhibition of his photographs in the new gallery.
- EkrTihfvavUU08/04/2025