Bill Cunningham exhibition to launch during NYFW

By

Jennifer Braun

Published
Aug 26, 2021

A new exhibition will spotlight legendary street photographer and fashion historian Bill Cunningham in The Seaport on September 12 during New York Fashion Week.

Dubbed 'Experience the Times of Bill Cunningham', the immersive installation, inspired by the acclaimed 2020 documentary by filmmaker Mark Bozek, will feature a range of dynamic experiences over two stories, 18,000-square-feet, and six distinct spaces. 

It will include experiences like a grand staircase where guests’ outfits will be digitally transformed, as well as an ever-changing gallery that reveals the surprising links between the sartorial trends captured by Cunningham and today’s latest street styles. 

The multi-sensory installation will house large-scale reproductions of Cunningham’s most iconic photos, video and audio interviews, artefacts like Cunningham’s iconic Biria bicycle and his trademark blue French worker’s jacket, and sounds that capture the energy of New York City’s streets. Visitors can pose along the way in places where Cunningham took many of his photographs, and in other installations that pay ode to the photographer’s body of work. 

Bozek said that the installation aims to capture the relentless curiosity, energy, and discovery that made Cunningham one of the world’s most influential documentarians, historians, and culture-makers.

Part of New York City’s cultural fabric, Cunningham photographed both everyday people and famed personalities like Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Anna Wintour, and Andy Warhol on the streets of Manhattan, and at both fashion shows and social events, for more than six decades. 

The exhibition will run for eight weeks through October 30, at 26 Fulton Street, New York. Admission is $30. It is set to launch on the last day of NYFW, which includes a five-day program of in-person shows and presentations from 91 national and international brands showcasing their collections for Spring/Summer 2022.