The Americas

Since the death last weekend of The New York Times beloved photographer Bill Cunningham at the age of 87, tributes have flooded social media to the man who documented New York’s fashion and social scene for 40 years.

 

 

 

Cunningham  was a regular on the streets of midtown Manhattan, in his distinctive blue jacket, cycling his bicycle and taking photos of people and what they were wearing. Fifth Avenue was his catwalk, so the iconic department store Bergdorf Goodman has paid a fitting tribute to Cunningham with a special window display  – depicting a bicycle and a Nikon camera against a background painted in what has been called “Bill Cunningham blue”, the exact shade of the blue cotton French worker’s jacket he always wore.  Fans have been flocking to the site to lay flowers and pay their respects.  

 

Great window at Bergdorf Goodman r.i.p. #billcunningham #bergdorfgoodman

A photo posted by Ariel Walmark (@arielllie) on Jun 28, 2016 at 7:53pm PDT

 

Known to New Yorkers for decades for his photographs in his column On the Street, he came to international attention when he was the subject of an acclaimed documentary in 2011. It gave viewers a glimpse into his strong work ethic and simple life, he lived  in a tiny apartment filled with filing cabinets of negative film in the Carnegie Hall building, with no kitchen and a shared bathroom.

 

A photo posted by @iljasmin on Jun 30, 2016 at 12:57am PDT

 

Since his death there has been a petition started to designate the corner of Fifth Avenue “Bill Cunningham Corner.” It’s already received over 4600 signatures. There has also been calls by designer Jeffrey Banks to have a a sculpture of Bill Cunningham placed on the corner. And social media streams have been flooded with tributes to the kind and gentle soul, who was beloved of the fashion world.

 

Some legends walk by you and you hardly notice them because that’s exactly what they want. Bill Cunningham was like this, and all his life he was able to keep that fire and the perfect distance from his subject, distance that allowed him to do the work that he did. He was always going, going, going, rain, snow, heat, always smiling. He is a role model for many photographers, and definitely for me, though I always knew I could never touch that level of dedication – and of selflessness. So at the shows, I used to let him go go go and just tried to not get in his way, that was the best way to show him all the good things I thought about him… Because as you can imagine, he didn’t care for a selfie. Goodbye Bill, you will be missed. Photo by @thesartorialist who loved taking photos of Bill… #BillCunningham

A photo posted by Garance Doré (@garancedore) on Jun 25, 2016 at 2:59pm PDT

 

 

 

Child.

A photo posted by SJP (@sarahjessicaparker) on Jun 25, 2016 at 7:17am PDT

 

How can you not love the man in blue. #billcunnigham

A photo posted by Chelsea Belle ? (@chelsea_dowling_) on Sep 8, 2013 at 5:46pm PDT