Photographer Bill Cunningham Captured Life in NYC For Decades
- Editor OGN Daily
- Aug 4
- 2 min read
Tens of thousands of images have been acquired by New York Historical, who are already working on an exhibition based on the archive’s materials.
“We are thrilled to have been chosen as the permanent home for the Bill Cunningham archive,” says Louise Mirrer, president and CEO of the New York Historical. “Bill, who famously turned fashion photography into cultural anthropology, is unique among American chroniclers of social life in New York.”
Beginning in the 1960s, photographer Bill Cunningham became famous for capturing New York City fashion, culture and candid street scenes. He showed the city that on every street corner there can be something to see. In his own words: he who seeks beauty will find it. To honor his prolific presence among the city’s glitterati and everyday public, the New York Landmarks Conservancy even named him a “living landmark” in 2009.
But while he attended countless fashion shows and social events throughout his career, Cunningham was notoriously private about his life and work. As such, following his death in 2016 at the age of 87, the fate of his immense library of images, many of which have never been publicly shared, has remained uncertain - until now.
The New York Historical has announced its acquisition of Cunningham’s archives, which include tens of thousands of photographs, negatives and slides. The archive spans roughly 600 linear feet, most of which are photographs taken between the 1960s and 2010s. But it also includes scrapbooks, news clippings and sketches from Cunningham’s time in Paris, where he covered fashion weeks and received the Legion of Honor from the French government in 2008.
According to the New York Historical, staffers are already working on an exhibition based on the archive’s materials.
