geo geller

October 12, 2015

Bill Cunningham Caught in Action

Filed under: — GeoGeller @ 4:19 am

Bill Cunningham Caught in Action

“Bill Cunningham – Caught in Action”
excerpted from work in progress documentary
“PUZZLE & the PUZZLER”
soul searching for
what drives us, great artist, scientist, inventors, thinkers… puzzler’s?
Bill Cunningham Caught in Action – Back Story
at Comic Con 2015
Born: March 13, 1929 Left His Body Behind June 25, 2016, and a Whole lot more
excerpted from work in Progress Documentary ”
PUZZLE & the PUZZLER”

New York Times – Fashion Photographer
fotos/slideshow
by
geo geller
geo (at) GeoGeller.com

i will miss Bill Cunningham NYTimes street videos – i always looked forward to them and they always tickled my imagination not only the fotography but his sense of perception and humor mixed with a childlike delight – so when i stumbled on this sign at the Union Sq Farmers Market i realized i wasn’t the only one who missed him too – as a street fotog myself who is never without my camera even in bed, and who sometimes goes on foto walks with other fotogs – spies for the future as i like to think of us – i know the intensity, challenges and joys of catching those moments beyond the usual and also last october i had pleasure of running into Bill and we both wound up shooting people exiting the last day of ComicCon – i had a chance to watch him in action and well Bill was a photographers photographer – he was in the zone when he was photographing and in his own world and knew enough that other photographers, including myself, were to be avoided because they wanted to chat and were a distraction for him so he built a silo around him an invisible wall – to me Bill was about being in the moment and being ready and catching the moment beyond the usual and maybe you can see that also in some of my fotos from my Bill In Action series – http://GeoGeller.com/bill/

We Miss You Bill

We Miss You Bill

Bill was a photographers photographer – Bill was, a hunter, lock jawed like a pitbull when he was in forward motion – you couldn’t talk to him or distract him – we shot together for a few hours at the exit of the ComicCon at Javits Center and didn’t say a word – he knew i was onto him and was play cat and mouse he got in some of my pics and i probably got into some of his by accident – i saw how he shot whole bodies where as i shot people he shot costumes for some reason i never saw the photos he took that day in his weekly videos –

perchance one day Oct 11, 2015 i ran into “Bill Cunningham” at the last day of Comic Con 2015 and i went up to him as street fotographers sometimes do to talk about the fishing and say hello – well he was quick brushed me off and i thought ouch and then i realized he is like me when i am shooting – i am focused so i recognized that avoiding me wasn’t personal – it was who he was when he was shooting also we were in the middle of feast a shooting/hunting gallery for photographers – there was so much coming at you that if you blinked an eye you missed a whole amazing shot of a life time – and if you ran after it you would miss something else – anyway i took 2,840 fotos in 3 or 4 hours, these photos were the results “Bill Cunningham Caught in Action more Bill Cunningham at ComicCon 2015 back story

i looked forward to Bill’s street fashion videos with a boyish excitement – not only as a street photographer myself but also i grew up literally in the lap of the schmatta, rag business sitting on my mothers lap at her old style singer sewing sewing machine, she use to make wedding gowns and samples for Oscar De La Renta, Ralph Lauren and others that i am sure Bill photographed too and then in the mid to late 1980’s i inventing a process for softening denim, stone-washing like process – but that is another story

“When I’m photographing,” Mr. Cunningham once said, “I look for the personal style with which something is worn — sometimes even how an umbrella is carried or how a coat is held closed. At parties, it’s important to be almost invisible, to catch people when they’re oblivious to the camera — to get the intensity of their speech, the gestures of their hands. I’m interested in capturing a moment with animation and spirit.”



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