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I got a chance to watch the documentary on New York Times fashion photographer Bill Cunningham once again (here are my two previous posts on him: Bill Cunningham, New York and "I'll Be Your Mirror"). My fascination with the film (and with Cunningham) is partly because it is about fashion, which Cunningham describes (in his Bostonian accent) as "the ahmor to survive the reality of everyday life," and that removing fashion "would be like doing away with civilization."
Watching the film this time around, I was able to catch a few more things. For example, the sound track to the film is by jazz musician John Lurie (here are samples of his music), whose raw music somehow fits with Cunningham's cut throat maneuvers through NYC traffic, exposed (and raw) on his bicycle.
But it was a phrase that caught my attention during Cunningham's acceptance speech while receiving the Chevalier of the Order of Arts and Letters in France. He bravely starts off in broken French (even his Boston accent cannot save it), and he says in English: "He who seeks beauty will find it." It is a wonder how this eighty three-year-old battles through life camera in hand. Because he knows he has to fight to find that beauty.
I scoured the web to see if "he who seeks beauty will find it" is part of a depository of famous quotes. But no, it is simply a Bill Cunningham quote, soon to be famous. Perhaps he said it with "he who seeks finds" in mind, from Matthew 7:8. Not everything he photographs is beautiful, but one can see his intent is to capture the beautiful, however clumsily it is presented to him. Our century is the least beautiful of the centuries. But, we are lucky that we have a Bill Cunningham, who through his ferociously persistent personality, will never tire to search for, and capture, that illusive beauty.