Reviews

Bill Cunningham New York /  by Todd Henson

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK poster. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK poster. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

I recently watched the documentary, Bill Cunningham New York, a film by Richard Press. At the time of the documentary (2011) Bill was a photographer for The New York Times. He had 2 columns:

  • In Evening Hours he photographed and reported on charities and charity events, touching on the social, philanthropic, and political world in New York.

  • In On the Street he documented trends in street fashion, showing how people dressed in New York. He would ride his bicycle around the streets of New York all day looking for any clothing that caught his eye.

I know this has little if anything to do with outdoor, landscape, or wildlife photography. But I think it’s valuable to learn about other forms of photography, or other forms of art, and about the artists who practice them. So I read books and watch documentaries about other artists and photographers. And I think this documentary is worth watching, even if you have no interest in New York or street fashion. Bill Cunningham was a fascinating person, a very kind, and good natured person, who seemed able to smile through almost anything. I loved watching his work ethic. Photographing street style in New York was his life, it’s all he did, all he wanted to do.

Bill Cunningham photographing in the street, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill Cunningham photographing in the street, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill was so humble he didn’t consider what he did photography. Referring to himself, he said, “It’s not photography. I mean any real photographer would say he’s a fraud. Well they’re right. I’m just about capturing what I see and documenting what I see.” He was over 80 years old and still working for The New York Times, riding his bicycle, photographing fashion. He was a perfect example of the saying, “if you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” And Bill Cunningham considered what he did fun. He was playing, not working.

He was a very down to earth person, both in personality and in what he photographed. He preferred street style, clothing people actually wore on the street. If he was at a fashion show and saw a model wearing something only a model could wear, he would put down his camera and not photograph that outfit.

Bill Cunningham photographing Vogue editor Anna Wintour, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill Cunningham photographing Vogue editor Anna Wintour, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill was also more interested in photographing the clothing than the person wearing the clothing. Most of those he photographed were just normal people he found on the street. And yet, he did photograph and get to know some very well known people, some of whom appear in the documentary:

  • Anna Wintour, editor-in-chief of Vogue magazine

  • Annette de la Renta, philanthropist and socialite, widow of fashion designer Oscar de la Renta

  • Iris Apfel, New York style icon

  • Annie Flanders, founding editor of Details magazine

  • Anna Piaggi, fashion columnist for Italian Vogue

Bill Cunningham photographing in the street, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill Cunningham photographing in the street, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Fashion was Bill’s life, and yet you would never know it by looking at what he wore, what he “drove”, what or where he ate, or where he lived. Bill liked very utilitarian clothing, almost always wearing a blue worker’s jacket because it was cheap, had plenty of useful pockets, and was easy to replace. He didn’t own a car, but got around town on his bicycle, which had been given to him when his previous bicycle was stolen. He loved inexpensive meals in down to earth eateries. He lived cheaply in a very small studio above Carnegie Hall. His room was filled with filing cabinets containing all his old negatives. He hung his clothes from the handles on the filing cabinets, and slept on a small cot in front of a row of filing cabinets. His studio was his home, and it didn’t even have its own bathroom; he had to share the bathroom in the hallway.

During the documentary he visits some of the other artists who were still residing in the Carnegie Hall Studios. Editta Sherman, 96 years old at the time of filming, had lived there for over 60 years and was good friends with Bill. But they all had to contemplate finding new places to live when the landlords decided it would be best to convert the old artist studios to more modern business offices. Even during this time Bill seemed to keep his smile and good nature.

Bill Cunningham at his desk at The New York Times, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill Cunningham at his desk at The New York Times, in BILL CUNNINGHAM NEW YORK. A film by Richard Press. A Zeitgeist Films release. Photo credit: First Thought Films / Zeitgeist Films

Bill liked to periodically go back to Paris, France. He felt it was a center of world fashion and a great place to re-educate the eye. He felt Fashion Week in Paris was exceptional. And it would appear Paris thought the same of him. Didier Grumbach, the President of the French Federation of Couture, on behalf of the Minister of Culture, decorated Bill an Officer in the Order of Arts and Letters, an honor meant to recognize contributors to the arts and literature. Examples of other Officers of the Order include Elton John, Shahrukh Khan, Tim Burton, Faye Dunaway, and Michael Keaton, among others.

Grumbach said of Bill, “He doesn’t want to be honored. He doesn’t want anything. And I’m amazed he accepted tonight. […] Very deeply I think he doesn’t believe he deserves it. That’s why he deserves it.”

There are so many potential takeaways from this documentary:

  • Find a way to do what you enjoy, or find a way to enjoy what you do. Life is too short, we should all be able to find a little joy in it.

  • Stay humble. If you manage to find success don’t let it go to your head. Stay grounded.

  • Continue to practice. It doesn’t matter how good you become at what you do there’s always more to learn and room for growth. Be a life-long learner.

  • Treat people well. There’s no need to put people down or ridicule their sense of style, personality, art or vision. Accept people for who they are and treat them as equals.

  • Have integrity. Don’t cave in to things that go against your sense of ethics or morality.

What else did you get from watching the film?

Watch the trailer for Bill Cunningham New York:

After watching the documentary I learned Bill Cunningham died in Manhattan on June 25, 2016. He was 87 years old. In an article about Bill Cunningham in The New York Times I learned the city thought well enough of him that in 2009 he was designated a living landmark.

If you have the opportunity, go pick up a copy, or see if it’s available on any of the services you belong to. Watch Bill Cunningham New York and let me know what you think of it.

Book Review - Genesis by Sebastiao Salgado /  by Todd Henson

This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. This is at no extra cost to you.

Front and back cover of Genesis by Sebastiao Salgado

Front and back cover of Genesis by Sebastiao Salgado

Genesis, by photographer Sebastiao Salgado, is a remarkable collection of black and white photography from all over the world. Salgado, along with his wife Lelia Wanick Salgado, began the Genesis project after having seen some of the worst of humanity while working on previous projects. He says he lost faith in humanity after constantly being exposed to such brutality and violence. But later, after returning to his family’s property in Brazil he and his wife set about restoring the property, regrowing forest that once grew there, and watched as over time wildlife also returned. They began to see the resilience of nature, how it can restore itself and thrive. Eventually this land was turned into a national park. This helped them overcome their loss of faith and provided the impetus for the Genesis project.

“We understood the absurdity of the idea that nature and humanity can somehow be separated.”
— Sebastiao Salgado

Genesis was an opportunity for them to travel the world and find places not yet ravished by modern human hands, places that still retained a natural vitality and grandeur. They visited peoples who still cling to older customs, though some have already begun to adopt aspects of modern society. They wanted to record what they could of these people before they had lost their traditional customs and way of living. They found wildlife and landscapes we imagine still exist but don’t often have the opportunity to see or experience. They captured all these things through photography to share with the world and show there is still beauty out there and things worth protecting and preserving.

“Our mission was to seek out the land and seascapes, the animals and ancient communities that have escaped the long — and often destructive — arm of modern man.”
— Sebastiao Salgado

Salgado’s work is very striking, and very uniquely his own. The images are often full of contrast with very bold blacks and whites. The lighting is beautiful. He photographs both huge, wide angle, sweeping landscapes full of amazing detail and pattern, and also more intimate portraits of people and wildlife. He really brings to life the peoples, places, and wildlife he photographs, and the Genesis project allowed him a huge range of subjects and environments.

“I wanted to examine how humanity and nature have long coexisted in what we now call ecological balance.”
— Sebastiao Salgado

The book is split into 5 sections covering different regions of the world. Each section begins with a few pages describing their experiences in that part of the world, and some of the peoples, places, and wildlife they encountered. Following the text are a large number of images. Some are single page images, some span over both pages. And there are pages that fold out to show a larger number of smaller images from that region.

The book is broken into the following sections:

  1. Planet South (page 15) covers regions around Antarctica, “the coldest, driest, and windiest of the world’s five continents.”

  2. Sanctuaries (page 117) covers isolated islands such as the Galapagos, Madagascar, Siberut, and New Guinea.

  3. Africa (page 217) covers the tribes, wildlife, and landscapes of the African continent.

  4. Northern Spaces (page 319) covers the Arctic regions and northern continents.

  5. Amazonia and Pantanal (page 419) covers the Amazon and Pantanal regions of South America.

Genesis is a large and heavy hardcover book published by Taschen. It is around 520 pages long, most of which are images with a small number of pages of text at the beginning and between each section. It measures about 9 3/4” x 14” and is about 1 5/8” thick. It is taller than it is wide. This works well for portrait (vertical) oriented images, but means that landscape (horizontal) oriented images span over 2 pages and have a seam down the center. I do wish the book were wider to show an entire landscape image on a single page, but that would likely have created a much larger and more expensive book. The quality of the images more than make up for any distraction caused by the book layout. The paper is a nice smooth semi-gloss paper that really helps the images pop. Included with the book is a smaller booklet with information about all of the images. This is nice because it gives them more room to provide information than would be possible if they included it beside each image in the main book. It lets the main book remain almost completely images, with no distractions.

If you’re unfamiliar with Sebastiao Salgado’s work, go check it out. His work provides a source of inspiration for me with my photography, and hopefully can provide some inspiration to you, as well, whether in photographic pursuits or just remembering there are still wild and wonderful places left in the world. I’m very pleased to have Genesis in my collection of photography books.

“In Genesis, I followed a romantic dream to find and share a pristine world that all too often is beyond our eyes and reach.”
— Sebastiao Salgado

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Book Review - Michael Kenna: Images of the Seventh Day /  by Todd Henson

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Michael Kenna: Images of the Seventh Day

Michael Kenna: Images of the Seventh Day

I’m always looking for new sources of inspiration, and books often fill that role. I find it hard to imagine a better source of inspiration than the photography book, Michael Kenna: Images of the Seventh Day, a book published for the 2010 exhibition, covering photographs from 1974 to 2009. Michael Kenna’s work is just remarkable. His work has a look that is all his own. You know a Kenna photograph when you see it.

Misty, smokey factories, and wispy blowing clouds above sand dunes

Misty, smokey factories, and wispy blowing clouds above sand dunes

“I prefer the power of suggestion over description.”
— Michael Kenna

Kenna’s photographs are black and white. The scenes are often misty, foggy, snowy, smokey, or captured at night. The light is usually very soft, early or late light. He creates landscapes of such beauty, often a strip of light sandwiched by layers of darkness, such as dark sky, light horizon, and dark foreground. Patterns play a large part in his images. Rows of manicured trees. A group of chairs at a beach. But there’s also motion, of clouds, fog, or water. He doesn’t include people in his images, but often photographs elements created by humans, such as factories, city streets, docks at the edge of a body of water, statues, or a well-cared for garden. He sometimes photographs a passing bird.

Very simple studies of form

Very simple studies of form

There is a beautiful interplay of light and dark in his images, sometimes light on dark, other times dark on light. I find many of his images relaxing. Some are simple with few elements, maybe just a tree against a field of snow. They are often soft, quiet, contemplative. Other times they are more moody, lonely, leaving the feeling of walking through a town where the only other living thing is a lone bird flying by.

Objects and abstracts

Objects and abstracts

In addition to the wide range of images, the book also includes a few introductory essays and a biography at the end. The essays are written in both Italian and English. They are worth reading.

“Misty, uncertain, sad locations with never any sunlight, not even for places, countries or subjects normally bathed in a blinding, deadly kind of light.”
— Ferdinando Scianna
“He prefers the dawn, grey skys, nighttime, cold seasons, fog and hostile climates.”
— Pierre Borhan

Michael Kenna was born in Widnes, England, in 1953. He dreamt of being a painter, but while attending art school and college he began studying photography, as he had doubts he could make a living as a painter, and with photography he could at least do commercial and advertising work. Thankfully, he didn’t give up on artistic pursuits, and eventually found a way to make a living producing the kind of work featured in this book. He later moved to the United States, and began traveling all over the world, producing amazing images everywhere he went. His art extends from the camera into the darkroom, where he personalizes the work, and finally to the printing stage, where the photographs are given life.

The book is a very nice hardcover edition published by Skira. It measures about 9 3/4” x 11 1/4” and a little over 1” thick, and has 272 pages. The book is bound well with good quality paper. The essays are printed on matte paper with a light tan color. The photographs are printed on white paper with a smooth satin finish. Some pages are filled by a single image, others contain two smaller images. All images are accompanied by their title and the location and year they were created.

I strongly suspect this will not be the last book of Michael Kenna’s work I’ll own. I’ve seen several others that have caught my interest. If anything in this review has caught your interest then go find some Michael Kenna photographs to study and appreciate. Search the web, find an exhibition, check your local library, head to the bookstore, or check out amazon. If you have the opportunity, find a copy of Michael Kenna: Images of the Seventh Day. It is a beautiful book full of fantastic imagery.

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