NEW YORK, March 22 — Fashion photographer Bill Cunningham, who died in 2016, left behind a surprise, discovered by his family: A written memoir of his life and career that is to be published in September.
The New York Times, for which Cunningham worked for nearly 40 years, reports that Cunningham left Fashion Climbing — his own title — in the form of two clean typed copies, with multiple drafts also found within his enormous archive.
It is unknown when Cunningham wrote the book, and its existence comes as a particular surprise given the photographer’s private nature, Christopher Richards, an editor at Penguin Press who acquired the book at auction, told the New York Times.
A description of the forthcoming book from Penguin Press calls the memoir “the story of a young man striving to be the person he was born to be: a true original.” Written with Cunningham’s signature “infectious joy,” it will delve into Cunningham’s upbringing in an Irish suburb of Boston and his dream of a life in fashion — a dream that was said to be a source of shame for his family.
From trying on his sister’s dresses and visiting chic boutiques in Boston, Cunningham headed to New York, where he revelled in the people-watching, and developed the extravagant, democratic taste, that made him famous as a photographer with the Times.
Fashion Climbing is set to be published on September 4. — AFP-Relaxnews
