Bill and Editta’s NY Treasure Hunt

By the time Bill Cunningham completed the Facades project in 1976, he had collected over 500 outfits and photographed over 1800 locations, and jotted down historical commentary on the versos of each print. Aside from imparting an original view of New York, the selection still evokes the exuberance of Bill and Editta’s treasure hunt, and their pride for the city they called home.  Cunningham donated eighty-eight gelatin silver photographs of Manhattan sites from the series to the New-York Historical Society in 1976, when they were first exhibited. Bill Cunningham and Editta Sherman remained friends in the decades after the completion of the Facades project until her death in 2013. The Facades photographs simultaneously capture something ephemeral about the city and withstand the test of time, and Bill Cunningham continues to travel by bicycle and photograph fashion in New York.