Bill Cunningham, NYC photographer

I watched the Bill Cunningham documentary in Digital Photography class a week ago. I'm not really a fan of outlandish outfits but I do admire someone's creativity and bravery to wear something different from the crowd. Bill is someone to easily admire and to choose as a role model.

There wasn't any interesting analysis of the White House Correspondents Dinner and I wanted to take a break from the current news of the Boston bombings thus I thought of Bill. The movie came out in 2010 when there were protests to close down Carnegie Hall so out of curiosity I wanted to find any current news on Bill Cunningham.

I admire several things about the man. He travels in different circles. Although he has connections to celebrity/ fashion events he carries himself as a humble man. Part of that, I think is his sense of values to not get corrupted by money or gifts. He is a rare person and I think a breath of fresh air amongst humanity. I liked that he was not attached to material things and as I begin to join the working world, I hope to avoid the trap of acquiring a bunch of stuff.

Here is the article Life Lessons from Mr. Cunningham. It's not recent but it's something to aspire to. One thing that resonated with me is the advice "When you’re comfortable with who you are, people will always assume you’re someone"
It reminded me of the people in the documentary who thought Bill came from a rich family. I loved the contrast of Bill going to high social events and returning to his tiny apartment surrounded filing cabinets.

There's confidence and then there's being arrogant. Humility, I believe is one of the main reasons why a person with confidence doesn't end up being an annoying arrogant person. The first advice "Pay Your Dues," or working your way up certainly helps with that. Though, it makes me wonder about people/politicians/CEOs who grow up poor and still become arrogant people who don't have any compassion for working class people.

I liked how Bill was really passionate about his job. I guess when you really enjoy your job, you don't mind doing it 24/7. It was also nice to see Mr. Cunningham hanging out with his neighbors from Carnegie Hall and doing something outside of photography. Another thing I really respected about Bill was that he kept his private life and his current relationships with friends a mystery. This is something I think a lot of people should live by. It's alright to keep your close circle of friends a mystery to the outside world. It would have been interesting to see if Bill had any close circle of friends outside of photography or fashion (I am not sure if his neighbors count) but I respect that.

Observing Bill, I think about what it means to have a meaningful, passionate life without worrying about what people might think and staying true to your values.