比爾坎寧安 從他的街拍裏看到整個紐約

Bill Cunningham, the street-style photographer whose photo essays for The New York Times memorialized trends ranging from fanny packs to Birkin bags, gingham shirts and fluorescent biker shorts, died Saturday in New York. He was 87.

街拍攝影師比爾·坎寧安(Bill Cunningham)爲《紐約時報》拍攝的攝影小品記錄了各種時尚——從腰包到柏金包(Birkin)，從格子襯衣到熒光自行車短褲。他於週六在紐約去世，享年87歲。

He had been hospitalized recently after having a stroke. His death was confirmed by The New York Times.

前不久，他因中風入院。他去世的消息得到《紐約時報》證實。

In his nearly 40 years working for The Times, Cunningham operated both as a dedicated chronicler of fashion and as an unlikely cultural anthropologist, one who used the changing dress habits of the people he photographed to chart the broader shift away from formality and toward something more diffuse and individualistic.

在爲《紐約時報》工作的近40年時間裏，坎寧安既是時尚的專注記錄者，也是一名令人難以置信的文化人類學家。他用鏡頭裏人們不斷變化的着裝習慣，來反映更爲廣泛的文化變遷——從較爲正式到更分散、更個性化。

At the Pierre hotel on the East Side of Manhattan, he pointed his camera at tweed-wearing blue-blood New Yorkers with names like Rockefeller and Vanderbilt. Downtown, by the piers, he clicked away at crop-top wearing Voguers. Up in Harlem, he jumped off his bicycle — he rode more than 30 over the years, replacing one after another as they were wrecked or stolen — for B-boys in low-slung jeans.

在曼哈頓東區的皮埃爾酒店(Pierre)，他把照相機對準洛克菲勒(Rockefeller)和範德比爾特(Vanderbilt)這些身穿花呢服裝的紐約望族。在市中心的碼頭邊，他拍攝身穿露臍上衣的時尚人士。在哈萊姆區，他從自行車上跳下，拍攝身穿低腰牛仔褲的霹靂舞小子(B-boy)。要是自行車壞了或被偷了，他就再買一輛，前前後後一共買了30多輛。

In the process, he turned into something of a celebrity himself.

在這個過程中，他自己也成了名人。

In 2008, Cunningham went to Paris, where the French government bestowed him with the Legion d’Honneur. Back in New York, he was celebrated at Bergdorf Goodman, where a life-size mannequin of him, as slight and bony-thin as ever, was installed in the window.

2008年，坎寧安前往巴黎接受法國政府授予他的榮譽軍團勳章(Legion d’Honneur)。他回到紐約後，波道夫·古德曼百貨公司(Bergdorf Goodman)爲了表示祝賀，在櫥窗裏擺放他的真人大小模型，和他本人一樣消瘦。

In 2009, he was named a Living Landmark by the New York Landmarks Conservancy and profiled in The New Yorker, which described his columns On the Street and Evening Hours as the city’s unofficial yearbook, “an exuberant, sometimes retroactively embarrassing chronicle of the way we looked.”

2009年，他被紐約地標建築保護委員會(New York Landmarks Conservancy)列爲活地標(Living Landmark)，《紐約客》(The New Yorker)在關於他的特寫文章中稱，他的“街頭”(On the Street)和“晚間時光”(Evening Hours)專欄是紐約市的非官方年鑑，“他對我們的着裝方式進行了豐富的記錄，有些回頭再看也會令人感到尷尬。”

In 2010, a documentary film, “Bill Cunningham New York,” premiered at the Museum of Modern Art to glowing reviews.

2010年，紀錄片《我們都爲比爾着盛裝》(Bill Cunningham New York)在現代藝術博物館(Museum of Modern Art)首映，獲得各界盛讚。

Yet Cunningham told nearly anyone who asked about it that the attendant publicity was a total hassle, a reason for strangers to approach and bother him.

不過，坎寧安對幾乎每一個向他詢問此事的人說，隨之而來的宣傳對他來說完全是一種苦惱——陌生人能夠得以接近他，煩擾他。

He wanted to find subjects, not be the subject. He wanted to observe, rather than be observed. Asceticism was a hallmark of his brand.

他想尋找拍攝對象，而不是成爲拍攝對象。他想去觀察別人，而不是被觀察。苦行主義是他的品質之一。

Cunningham’s position as a perennial outsider among a set of consummate insiders was part of what made him uniquely well suited to The Times.

在追求完美的業內人士中間，坎寧安始終甘當局外人，這是他特別適合時報的原因之一。

“His company was sought after by the fashion world’s rich and powerful, yet he remained one of the kindest, most gentle and humble people I have ever met,” said Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr., the Times’s publisher and chairman. “We have lost a legend, and I am personally heartbroken to have lost a friend.”

“時尚界的權勢人物都歡迎他的陪伴，但他仍是我見過的最友好、最溫和、最謙遜的人之一，”時報出版人兼董事長小阿瑟·奧克斯·蘇茲伯格(Arthur Ochs Sulzberger Jr.)說，“我們失去了一位傳奇，從我個人來說，我失去了一位朋友，這讓我感到傷心。”

Dean Baquet, the Times’s executive editor, said: “He was a hugely ethical journalist. And he was incredibly open-minded about fashion. To see a Bill Cunningham street spread was to see all of New York. Young people. Brown people. People who spent fortunes on fashion, and people who just had a strut and knew how to put an outfit together out of what they had and what they found.”

時報的執行主編迪恩·巴奎(Dean Baquet)說：“他是一位很有職業道德的記者。他對時尚保持非常開放的態度。看一看比爾·坎寧安的橫貫兩版街拍，就相當於看到了整個紐約。年輕人。棕色皮膚的人。願意在服裝上破費的人，以及那些非常自信、知道如何從現有的和能找到的服裝中搭配出一身行頭的人。”

Michele McNally, The Times’s director of photography, said: “Bill was an extraordinary man, his commitment and passion unparalleled, his gentleness and humility inspirational. Even though his talents were very well known, he preferred to be anonymous, something unachievable for such a superstar. I will miss him every day.”

時報的攝影總監米歇爾·麥克納利(Michele McNally)說：“比爾是一個了不起的人。他的投入和熱情無與倫比，他的親切和謙遜令人鼓舞。雖然他的才華幾乎人盡皆知，但他還是願意默默無聞——對這樣一位超級明星來說，這非常難得。我每天都會想念他。”

Cunningham particularly loved eccentrics, whom he collected like precious seashells.

坎寧安特別喜歡古怪的人，他像收集珍貴的貝殼那樣收集這些人的蹤影。

Cunningham’s most frequent observation spot during the day was Fifth Avenue and 57th Street, where he became as much a part of the scenery as Tiffany & Co. His camera clicked constantly as he spotted fashions and moved with gazellelike speed to record his subjects at just the right angle.

坎寧安白天最常去的觀察點是第五大道和第57街，他和蒂芙尼珠寶公司(Tiffany & Co.)一樣成爲街景的一部分。一旦發現時尚，他就以羚羊般的速度移動，找到最佳角度，不停地按下快門，記錄他的拍攝對象。

“Everyone knew to leave him alone when he saw a sneaker he liked or a dress that caught his eye,” said Harold Koda, the former curator in charge at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute.

“大夥兒都知道，當他看上一雙運動鞋或一條裙子時，不要去打擾他，”大都會藝術博物館(Metropolitan Museum of Art)服裝學院(Costume Institute)的前策展主管哈羅德·科達(Harold Koda)說。

“Because if you were in the way of someone he wanted to photograph,” said Kim Hastreiter, the editor of Paper Magazine and a friend of Cunningham’s, “he would climb over you to get it. He was like a war photographer that way, except that what he was photographing were clothes.”

“因爲如果你擋住了他想拍的人，”《Paper Magazine》的主編、坎寧安的好友基姆·哈斯特萊斯塔(Kim Hastreiter)說。“他會從你身上翻過去拍照。那種感覺像戰地記者，只不過他拍的是服裝。”

“When I’m photographing,” 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.”

“拍照時，”坎寧安曾說過，“我尋找的是個性化的着裝風格，有時甚至是拿雨傘或外套繫緊的方式。在派對上，幾乎保持隱身很重要，在人們沒有注意到照相機的時候去拍照——捕捉到講話的熱情和他們的手勢。我喜歡拍攝有活力的時刻。”

William John Cunningham Jr. was born March 13, 1929, in Boston, the second of four children in an Irish-Catholic family.

小威廉·約翰·坎寧安(William John Cunningham Jr.)於1929年3月13日出生於波士頓一個愛爾蘭天主教家庭，是家中四個孩子中的老二。

In middle school, he used bits of material he got from a dime store to put together hats, one of which he gave to his mother to wear to the New York World’s Fair in 1939. “She never wore it,” Cunningham once said. “My family all thought I was a little nuts.”

中學時，他用從廉價商店搞到的小塊布料拼成了幾頂帽子，其中一頂送給了媽媽，讓她在參觀1939年的紐約世博會時戴上。“她從沒戴過，”坎寧安曾說過，“我的家人都覺得我有點瘋。”

As a teenager, he got a part-time job at the department store Bonwit Teller, then received a scholarship to Harvard only to drop out after two months. “They thought I was an illiterate,” Cunningham said. “I was hopeless — but I was a visual person.”

十幾歲時，他在邦威特·特勒百貨公司(Bonwit Teller)得到一份兼職工作，後來獲得了哈佛大學(Harvard)的獎學金，但是兩個月後就退學了。“他們覺得我無知，”坎寧安說，“說我不可救藥——但我是一個視覺型的人。”

With nothing to do in Boston and his parents pressuring him to find some direction, he moved to New York, where he took a room with an uncle, Tom Harrington, who had an ownership stake in an advertising agency.

他在波士頓無事可做，父母又催他尋找工作方向，所以他搬去紐約，和舅舅湯姆·哈林頓(Tom Harrington)合住。哈林頓在一個廣告公司持有所有權股份。

“My family thought they could indoctrinate me in that business, that living with my uncle, it would brush off,” Cunningham said. “But it didn’t work. I had always been interested in fashion.”

“我的家人以爲他們可以誘導我入那一行，以爲我和舅舅住在一起，就會打消原來的想法，”坎寧安說，“但那沒起作用。我一直對時裝感興趣。”

So when Harrington issued his nephew an ultimatum — “quit making hats or get out of my apartment” — Cunningham chose the latter, relocating to East 52nd Street to a ground-floor apartment that doubled as a showroom for his fox-edged fedoras and zebra-stenciled toques.

所以當哈林頓給外甥下了最後通牒——“別再做帽子了，不然你就從我家搬出去”——坎寧安選擇了後者，他搬到東52街的一個位於底層的公寓，那裏兼做展廳，展示他的狐皮邊淺頂軟呢男帽和斑馬印花無邊女帽。

To make extra money, Cunningham began freelancing a column in Women’s Wear Daily, then quit sometime in the early 1960s after getting into a feud with its publisher, John Fairchild, over who was a better designer: André Courrèges or Yves Saint Laurent.

爲了多掙些錢，坎寧安開始在《女裝日報》(Women’s Wear Daily)上以自由撰稿人的身份開設專欄。在20世紀60年代早期的某個時候，由於與出版人約翰·費爾柴爾德(John Fairchild)就安德烈·庫雷熱(André Courrèges)和伊夫·聖羅蘭(Yves Saint Laurent)誰是更好的設計師發生爭執，他停止與該報合作。

Around 1967, he got his first camera and used it to take pictures of the “Summer of Love,” when he realized the action was out on the street. He started taking assignments for The Daily News and The Chicago Tribune, and he became a regular contributor to The Times in the late 1970s, though over the next two decades, he declined repeated efforts by his editors to take a staff position.

1967年前後，他有了第一部相機，用它拍攝“愛之夏”運動(Summer of Love)，就是這個時期，他意識到，真正的運動在街頭。他開始接受《每日新聞》(The Daily News)和《芝加哥論壇報》(The Chicago Tribune)的拍攝任務。20世紀70年代末，他開始經常給時報投稿，不過在接下來的20年裏，他拒絕成爲時報的全職員工，儘管編輯們多次邀請。

“Once people own you,” he would say, “they can tell you what to do. So don’t let ‘em.”

“一旦別人成了你的老闆，”他會說，“你就得聽他們的。所以不要讓他們成爲你的老闆。”

That changed in 1994 after Cunningham was hit by a truck while riding his bicycle. Explaining why he had finally accepted the Times’s offer, he said, “It was a matter of health insurance.”

這在1994年發生改變——那一年，坎寧安在騎車時被一輛卡車撞倒。他在解釋爲什麼最終接受時報的邀請時說，“是爲了獲得醫療保險。”

Cunningham also resisted the trends of celebrity dressing. He had seen actresses in their fishtail dresses preening and posing before the phalanxes of photographers at ceremonies like the Golden Globes and the Oscars. They were poised. They looked pretty. Yet he simply could not muster enthusiasm for them.

坎寧安還抗拒名人着裝的潮流。在金球獎(Golden Globes)和奧斯卡獎(Oscars)等頒獎典禮上，他看到女演員們身穿魚尾禮服在一羣攝影師面前整理妝容，擺姿勢。她們一動不動，看起來很美。不過，他就是對她們提不起熱情。

It wasn’t simply that he was nostalgic for another time, back when famous women like Lauren Bacall and Brooke Astor actually dressed themselves. That era may have held a certain appeal for him, but even when he was in his 70s and 80s, he still had plenty of subjects he loved to shoot.

這不只是因爲他懷念另一個時代——那時，勞倫·巴考爾(Lauren Bacall)和布魯克·阿斯特(Brooke Astor)等明星真的是自己挑選衣服。那個年代對他來說也許具有某種吸引力，不過即便在他七八十歲時，他依然有很多喜歡拍攝的對象。

One was Louise Doktor, an administrative assistant at a New York holding company who had a coat with four sleeves and a handbag made from a soccer ball. Another was Andre J., a bearded man with a taste for off-the-shoulder ‘70s-inspired dresses.

其中一位便是紐約某控股公司的行政助理路易斯·多克托爾(Louise Doktor)，她有一件帶四個袖子的外套，以及一個用足球做成的手袋。還有留山羊鬍的安德烈·J(Andre J.)，他偏愛70年代風格的露肩裙裝。

“He had people who recurred in his columns,” Koda said. “Most of them were not famous. They were working people he was interested in. His thing was personal style.”

“在他的專欄中，有些人反覆出現，”科達說。“他們大都不是名人，而是他感興趣的職場人士。他最愛的就是個人風格。”

Cunningham put it this way in an essay he wrote for The Times in 2002: “Fashion is as vital and as interesting today as ever. I know what people with a more formal attitude mean when they say they’re horrified by what they see on the street. But fashion is doing its job. It’s mirroring exactly our times.”

坎寧安在2002年爲《紐約時報》撰寫的文章中闡明瞭自己的觀點：“當今的時裝一如既往地至關重要而且趣味盎然。有些一本正經的人說，在街頭看到的東西把他們嚇壞了，我知道他們是什麼意思。但這就是時裝在發揮自己的功能。它準確地反映出我們的時代。”