New York fashion photographer Bill Cunningham dies

Bill Cunningham, fashion photographer and recorder of New York’s changing fashion scene, died Saturday at age 87. He worked consistently until he suffered a stroke a week ago.

For half a century (since the subway strike in 1966), Cunningham rode his bicycle around Manhattan, darting in and out of traffic, to photograph what people were wearing. He noted colors and patterns, and caught trends before anyone else noticed them. His Saturday photo essays in The New York Times might feature an assortment of people dressed in plaid one week and men wearing vests the following week.

Born into an Irish Catholic family in Boston, Cunningham moved to New York in 1948 after spending one semester at Harvard. He went to work at Bonwit Teller and soon began making women’s hats.

“To make money, I worked at a corner drugstore,” he later recalled. “At lunchtime, I’d stop making hats and run out and deliver lunches to people. At night, I worked as a counterman at Howard Johnson’s. Both jobs provided my meals, and the dimes and nickels of my tips paid for millinery supplies.”

The U.S. Army drafted Cunningham during the Korean War. When he returned to New York, he began writing about fashion for Women’s Wear Daily and The Chicago Tribune. He joined The New York Times in 1978, still riding his bicycles: By 2002, thieves had stolen his bikes 27 times, so he only bought second-hand ones. The French Ministry of Culture awarded him its Officier de l’ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2008.

In the 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York, director Richard Press asked Cunningham two personal questions. The first was about romance, and Cunningham guessed at the real intent: “Do you want to know if I’m gay?” He answered his own question, “Isn’t that a riot? That’s probably why the family wanted to keep me out of the fashion world.” Then he added, “It never occurred to me. … I wouldn’t even think about it.”

The second question was whether religion was important to him. Cunningham, a weekly churchgoer, looked down during a long pause. Finally he looked up and said, “Yeah, I think it’s a good guidance in your life … it’s something I need.”