Bill Cunningham

So I am Now a student at Nottingham Trent University, and what a week, this past week has been; definitely one I won't be forgetting anytime soon. The stress of moving away from home, actually having to remember to feed myself, getting used to a new course as well as making new friends along the way and getting used to living with 5 guys, yep they lived up to expectation of not being the tidiest of people to live with, I feel like I have become a flat mum to them.

Within are welcome week one of the things that we did was to go to a cinema within the city centre and watch a documentary about Bill Cunningham. One of the main aspects that has been communicated to use so far on the course is to consistently look for inspiration, it can be found in so many places in are daily lives especially street photography.

I feel that it was very fitting that we were to watch the documentary on Bill Cunningham; who sadly passed away this year, as I find his work extremely inspiring and he was also a very famous street photographer himself. Through the streets of New York he captured all sorts of street style from all walks of life, he focused his attention on real people and not just models, photographing the looks and garments on the streets brought a different life to them rather than how they appear under the lights of a runway.

Now although slightly hungover and tired while watching the documentary it really was amazing to watch clips of him in action, speaking about his work and also what others had to say about such an iconic photographer of are times. Although I was aware of his name and some of his work before hand I had never really thought much into it but this documentary really opened my eyes, he was a perfectionist in every way and didn't stop until he achieved what he was looking for and happy with the results.

'Bill Cunningham, who turned fashion photography into his own branch of cultural anthropology on the streets of New York, chronicling an era’s ever-changing social scene for The New York Times by training his busily observant lens on what people wore — stylishly, flamboyantly or just plain sensibly — died on Saturday in Manhattan. He was 87.' - Taken from The New York times

In a 40 year career at the NY times he really did have quite an impact on the fashion world.

He was almost a landmark in the city himself, quite easily noticed riding round on his bicycle. Not the

most fashionable of characters, he would be seen always wearing his blue jacket, khaki trousers and black trainers not to forget the most crucial part of his look his camera hanging round his neck, always on the look out, nothing missed his eye.

What really surprised me about Cunningham and that I, along with us didn't know was before he became a fashion photographer he designed hats for women and that he also wrote fashion articles for both 'Women's Wear Daily' and 'Chicago Tribune'. But I surprose this is what made his photographs stand out above the rest, he really knew what he was looking at and what he was looking for, he knowing when we had found/spotted something special.