Happy 85th, Bill Cunningham!
We hardly know what to say, Bill. You keep reaching milestone after milestone. Years after that fond documentary about you and your work, which, to others, would have been an excellent time to bow out, you just keep on truckin’. Or rather, cyclin’. Everyday, without fail, you’re out on your bike, pedaling around the city taking thoughtful pictures of friends, colleagues, and strangers alike. You’re the original street-style photographer with what’s surely the largest archive of New York street life ever documented.
It’s ironic that it was a chance snapshot you took of Greta Garbo, that most hermetic of hermits, that started your photographic career at the New York Times. Because although you can also be quite reclusive, tucking away into that file cabinet-sized apartment of yours in the Carnegie Hall building each night, you’re surprisingly sociable, agreeably speaking with anyone offering real conversation, not mere flattery. But we hope you secretly like the flattery, too; it’s well-deserved. See you at the Historical Society.