In 2016, legendary New York street photographer Bill Cunningham died, aged 87. The fashion industry, and everyone who was lucky enough to be photographed by him, collectively remembered how he captured the best fashion show there ever was: the one on the street.
Cunningham began taking photos in the 1960s, after shutting up shop as a milliner and a brief stint in the army. Rising to prominence in the 80s with his On the Street column for the New York Times, it is clear just how expertly Cunningham sees pavement and pedestrian crossings as a catwalk of their own.
The 2010 documentary Bill Cunningham New York reveals the man behind the camera. Filmed in his 80th year, the documentary follows him around on his bicycle – easy to spot in his signature blue worker’s jacket – as he darts between yellow taxis, nimble and quick, and ready to do anything for the shot.
Cunningham’s no-fuss personality played a huge role in his ability to spot the best leopard print, or the coat with the nicest collar. He was famously not interested in the status of stars, and mentions early clients in his hat shop – Ginger Rogers, Joan Crawford and Marilyn Monroe – offhandedly. While attuned to the who’s who at society events, he is described as a true egalitarian: for him, it was only about the clothes.
Of his many high-profile subjects that are interviewed in the documentary – including former magazine editors Iris Apfel (always eccentrically dressed, even now at 102) and Annette De La Renta – it is Anna Wintour who says it best: “We all get dressed for Bill.”
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When he was not on the street, he was in a cubicle in the New York Times offices, where we see the painstaking process of composing Cunningham’s pages. Perhaps this week is all about graphic print T-shirts or “shoes and legs”, but Cunningham’s eye demands the layout be perfect and best serve the reader. For them, he is identifying trends (after all, he saw them first) – the denim dresses and leggings of the 80s, the fanny packs and baggy pants of the 90s.
While he often photographed extravagance, Cunningham’s life was simple and private. His flat is crammed with fashion books and filing cabinets full of negatives of every photo he has ever taken. His clothes hangers hang off cabinet handles; his bed is on slats in between shelves. He has never owned a television, and has no kitchen.
By the time the documentary is being filmed, Cunningham is hard of hearing, but his joy lays in what he sees. His energy is infectious: it is more than enough to make you never look down when you’re walking again, in case you miss a fashionable passer-by.
Dispersed throughout are stories from those Cunningham photographed most, like one man who made his pants from the fabric of an old ottoman, and the matching suit jacket out of a sofa. There are also pivotal moments from the fashion world: sitting in the front row of shows at fashion week in Paris – a city that he says “educates the eye” – Cunningham takes photos with rapturous energy even though he is old enough to remember Yves Saint Laurent’s first ready-to-wear show in the 60s, where he was also taking photos. How times changed.
Bill Cunningham New York is about fashion, but it is also about a man’s devotion to his self-taught craft. What would New York have done without Bill Cunningham? 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.
Bill Cunningham New York is streaming on Prime Video and Apple TV+. For more recommendations of what to stream in Australia, click here
The handmade and imperfect is a realm where husband and wife Michael and Mariel Upton of eponymous design studio Upton seem very comfortable operating within. The San Diego-based designers approach to everything from throw blankets, wall hooks, sculptures, to LP stands all exhibit a relaxed modernist approach to the practical – with a little bit of the graphical playfulness reminiscent of Marimekko thrown in for good measure. Taken as a whole, the Uptons’ body of work shares a playful perspective not too far removed from another famous creative Southern California pair, exhibiting a similar “approachable and accessible” design ethos.
Their latest offerings – HERU, CUNA, and MARA – are a trio of wall lights with a very SoCal origin story behind their illuminating spirit. Each of the oval-shaped lights was originally intended to live their life as a new skateboard deck. Alas, as anything manufactured, not every piece came out perfect and pieces were cast aside and deemed factory seconds, each destined for the landfill. Fortunately, Upton had the imagination to envision these pieces of ply living a new life as an illuminating feature for the home.
Even with a cursory glance, most eyes will recognize the 7-ply maple wood piece once aspired for a life dedicated to ollies and kickflips. After recutting each piece, Upton adds a splash of graphic design color printed across the deck’s top surface, then pairs each with lighting hardware and an easy-to-install custom wall-mount to complete the package.
The resulting trio of wall lights offer a surprisingly elevated home decor option for anyone who once or still loves skating, but who may also want to whisper rather than shout out that affinity within their home.
Each light measures 8.5”W x 13.5”H x 4.5”D, and can accommodate either a 20W LED bulb or 60W incandescent bulb.
All three Upton light designs are assembled to order in Upton’s San Diego studio and priced at $169 each.
Gerry Cranham, who has died aged 94, elevated sports photography from simple reportage into an artform; he pioneered several techniques, most notably the “zoom/blur”, which isolates the subject at the centre of a visual vortex, as well as the use of remote cameras, and he remains the only sports photographer to be given an exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London – and was only the second of any kind, following in the footsteps of Henri Cartier-Bresson.
He made a splash with his expertise in underwater photography when covering swimming – sometimes at the expense of his personal safety. In 1964 he took the plunge to photograph the swimmer Bob McGregor – the “Falkirk Flyer”. Cranham was submerged and weighted down, and had to be pulled out of the pool by his hair when he got into difficulties.
Cassius Clay, later Muhammad Ali, accurately predicts the round in which he would stop Henry Cooper in their fight at Wembley in June 1963
Credit: Gerry Cranham
On another occasion he hung in a harness from the Whispering Gallery in St Paul’s Cathedral to photograph Winston Churchill, and he took one of his best known horse racing shots hiding behind a starting gate at a track in Italy (he would later use a remotely controlled device for such shots). When he was engaged in a high-speed pursuit of Edward Heath racing Morning Cloud in the Solent, he was warned off by the politician’s security detail but managed to get a few shots away amid cries of “Get back! Get back!”
Gerald Cranham was born on February 1 1929 at Hartley Wintney, a village in Hampshire, to Elizabeth, née James, and George, an upholsterer. He attended Salesian College in Farnborough, leaving at 15. He was an apprentice draughtsman at the Miles Aircraft company before spending five years in the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, from 1948-53, and worked as a draughtsman afterwards.
Olympic swimmer Bob McGregor, ‘the Falkirk Flyer’, in 1964: Cranham, submerged and weighted down, was hauled from the water by his hair when he got into trouble
Credit: Gerry Cranham/Offside Sports Photography
He was a promising middle-distance runner, going on to represent Reading Athletic Club and Herne Hill Harriers in south London; he won the English Counties junior half-mile, and in the run-up to the 1948 Olympic Games in London he ran a leg of the Torch Relay.
But the year after he left the Army in 1953, an injury cut short his running career, so he took up coaching, and began using photography to demonstrate to his charges where they were going wrong. “I had to save to afford the camera,” he recalled. “It was a Corfield Periflex, which was about £40, a lot of money then. I didn’t realise how expensive photography was.”
He saw he might be on to something when his runners started to buy the pictures he was taking of them, and in 1957 came his breakthrough. “There was this road relay from London to Brighton,” he recalled. “A man from the local athletics club had a sports car, and I photographed the race all the way through.” He sold most of the pictures on the roll, though he did later admit: “I think they were very bad.”
The Tottenham goalkeeper John Hollowbread tries to keep warm at White Hart Lane in January 1964: at a time when Cranham was doubting his talent, the shot restored his faith in himself
Credit: Gerry Cranham/Offside Photography
British athletics was still basking in the glow of Roger Bannister’s historic sub-four-minute mile, and Cranham found a ready market for his photos in Athletics Weekly. “I had a great advantage, having been an athlete for quite a number of years, so I was able to exploit that. It meant I knew when to take shots and when to keep out of the way.” He set up a darkroom in his kitchen – “Everything was done on a shoestring and was all trial and error” – and would cycle to Fleet Street to deliver his prints.
In 1959 he was doing well enough to give up his draughtsman’s job to go full-time, and into the next decade his work began appearing in Sports Illustrated in the US, and on this side of the Atlantic in The Observer, where Cranham developed a double act with the magisterial sportswriter Hugh McIlvanney.
Night racing at the Happy Valley track in Hong Kong, 1980
Credit: Gerry Cranham
In May 1963 he was on duty photographing Cassius Clay at the Territorial Army Drill hall in Shepherd’s Bush as the boxer prepared to take on Henry Cooper. His persistence paid off when, after most of his fellow snappers had departed, he asked Ali what round he would win in: the American famously put up four fingers and a thumb, his facial expression lighting up the hall. His prediction came true when the referee stopped the fight in the fifth round.
Later, when Clay had become Muhammad Ali, Cranham travelled to Ghana to photograph him and went out for lunch with him, finding him “a lovely man”.
Cranham was one of the first sports photographers to use colour film – he was one of only three shooting in colour at the 1966 World Cup final – although one of his own favourites was in black and white.
Washing down after a work-out, Argentina, 1980
Credit: Gerry Cranham
At New Year 1964 he was at a Tottenham game at a foggy White Hart Lane when he saw the Spurs goalkeeper John Hollowbread jumping in the air to keep warm, and used his remote cable to click his camera’s shutter: the result was an ethereal study of a solitary figure alone in his own world. Coming during a period when Cranham was having doubts about his ability, the shot restored his faith in his own craft.
By then Cranham had become much in demand beyond sporting confines, and a few weeks earlier he had been in the White House on the day of John F Kennedy’s assassination. As the administration went into lockdown, a government official spotted him down the corridor, and yelled: “What’s that limey doing here?”
Exercise on the Curragh, 1988
Credit: Gerry Cranham
He was named Sports Photographer of the Year in 1977, and from the 1980s he did much of his work while following his great passion, the world of horse racing. He published several books with the great racing writer Brough Scott.
Cranham retired in 2013; a retrospective, “Simply the Best”, was held at the Michael Hoppen Gallery in 2019, and in 2021 the book This Sporting Life collected some of his best work.
Gerry Cranham married Nancy, known as Nan, in 1952; she survives him with their two daughters and three sons.
Gerry Cranham, born February 1 1929, died October 20 2023
An architecture photographer in California has been awarded $6.3 million after a jury found that a retirement community provider used 43 of his pictures without a license.
According to a report in Architectural Photographer Almanac, Scott Hargis has won a case that has gone on for years and has been awarded one of the highest amount of damages ever in a photo copyright case.
Pacifica Senior Living refused to settle with Scott Hargis Photo with the case being escalated to a trial by a jury who found every image to be a willful infringement and awarded Hargis the maximum $150,000 per image that copyright law allows.
The case highlights the benefit of registering photographs with the United States Copyright Office (USCO). Photographers who do so can sue for statutory damages; which is what Hargis did.
If Hargis hadn’t registered his works with the USCO then he would only have been able to sue for actual damages which is equivalent to the market value of the image’s license.
Once a photographer has their works registered and an infringement has been found they must decide whether to sue for willful or non-willful. Non-willful carries a maximum of $30,000 in damages and willful has a maximum of $150,000.
Hargis’ case shows the value of registering works with the USCO. According to Architectural Photographer Almanac, the defendants claimed that there was no infringement but the jury disagreed.
Hargis tells Architectural Photographer Almanac that he is “thrilled” with the result adding that he “hadn’t quite processed it yet.”
Hargis is an experienced architecture photographer who, according to his website, lives in Oakland, California.
This time last year, a photographer was awarded $1.2 million after a company used his photo of a pigeon for over a decade without compensating him for it.
It has been a year of positive outcomes for photographers embattled in copyright infringement cases: In May, the United States Supreme Court released its opinion on The Andy Warhol Foundation v. Goldsmith case, finding in favor of Lynn Goldsmith and stating that Warhol’s use of her photo was not fair use.
Image credits: Header photo licensed via Depositphotos.
WICHITA, Kan. (KWCH) – Some local students are turning photographs into opportunities, earning a Helping Hand from 12 News and Devaughn James Injury Lawyers.
These Gordon Parks Academy students have been working to master their photography skills. That effort led to a photo contest and an opportunity for them to take a trip to Paris.
“Delvyn’s work was submitted and his photo actually won second place — and with that, he won $75,” Gordon Parks teacher Mary DeVellchio said of one of her students. “That was huge, but then Mr. Cheers, who is putting on the contest, honored Delvyn with a full scholarship to Pars because of that photo.”
“I was surprised,” Delvyn said. “I didn’t even know I was going to win.”
Photographer Gordon Parks, the school’s namesake, also took students on a trip to Paris during one of his assignments, and now all of these photography students are raising money to help perfect their photography skills.
“This is life-changing,” DeVellchio said. “How many middle schoolers get this opportunity – how many adults get this opportunity to follow a legend like Gordon Parks?”
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Bored Panda reached out to the organizers of Nature’s Best Photography Awards, who shared when the competition started and what changes have happened since it began in 1995.
“Nature photographers travel the globe to document its beauty and diversity. They witness breathtaking landscapes, fascinating wildlife behavior, and surprising glimpses of Earth’s soaring peaks and mysterious ocean depths. The powerful images and stories these photographers bring home awaken our desire to explore, enjoy, and conserve the natural world.
In admiration and support of these visually driven storytellers and the important impact they have made since cameras were first invented, the Nature’s Best Photography (NBP) concept was born in 1995. NBP’s ambitious goals are to recognize, celebrate, and support this ever-growing body of work and the dedicated photographers of all ages, backgrounds, and levels of camera expertise behind it. All NBP initiatives strive to engage and involve global audiences, enhance artistic expression, promote outdoor education and personal well-being, and inspire greater public participation in the conservation and preservation of the natural world.
Over the years, camera technology has changed dramatically, from film to digital capture. Social media has given global platforms to photographers, enabling them to instantly share images and stories. These changes in technology and dissemination have transformed our awards program. High-definition computer monitors have allowed us to better process, review, and manage the increased volume of image submissions. Photographers now have better tools and greater access to destinations; their skills have improved through workshops, careful observations of pros, and research online.
With the growth of our awards program, our mission has evolved to become one of the most prestigious photography competitions of its kind. In 1998, we partnered with the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC, to exhibit our best photography each year—an alliance that lasted 15 years. Today, we reach an international group of nature photographers with a passion for wildlife and wild places who want to spread appreciation and inspiration for conservation practices, and exhibit the winning images in prestigious venues across the globe.”
