As part of the “Fashion and Style in Photography 2021” festival, the Multimedia Art Museum in Moscow presents for the first time an exhibition of the work of the legendary American photographer Bill Cunningham.
The project is presented by the Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York, curated by Anna Zaitseva.

With over 150 unique photographs spanning five decades, the ‘Bill Cunningham. From the Runway to the Street’ exhibition is not just a chronicle of fashion trends from the street to the elite, but a testament to life in the great metropolis that has little moving. resemblance to the New York of today.

Cunningham was a keen observer of the various intersections of cosmopolitan life. His photographs capture clothing in the three arenas where fashion is disclosed to the public: haute couture shows, parties and events and, above all, the street style of New York and Paris. The photographs portray the evolution of trends and attitudes that spoke of politics and moments of cultural transition. Celebrities and ordinary people alike have found the same exposure through Cunningham’s lens. His goal and pleasure was to portray stars such as Diana Vreeland, Anna Wintour, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Barbra Streisand, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, David Bowie, Gianni Versace, Karl Lagerfeld, Luciano Pavarotti, Mikhail Baryshnikov, and people with a distinct style that they distinguished out among the many walking along Fifty-seventh Street.

In the introduction to the 2019 publication “Bill Cunningham: On the Street: Five Decades of Iconic Photography”, Cathy Horyn, esteemed fashion critic and former writer for “The New York Times,” wrote: “[Bill] first wave of women to ditch their heels and go to work in trainers, the return of the zoot suit, the phenomenon of low-rise jeans, the fashion of camouflage, and a hundred different ways in which New Yorkers style a storm. He believed that a true portrait of fashion – and, by inference, of the times – depended on seeing how real people dressed, whether they were children in deconstructed hoodies or big spenders at a charity event. The runway wasn’t enough, so hit the streets every day with his camera.”

As evidenced in his “Evening Hours” column for “The New York Times,” Cunningham apparently never missed an upscale event or party, sometimes attending up to twenty in a week. He was able to mingle with the guests while remaining separate enough to create compelling and heartfelt images. However, Cunningham’s “On the Street” column was where the photographer’s eye and instinct – for people, clothes and accessories – really captured the verve of both the city that never sleeps, both of the city of light.