I loved the documentary and I admire Bill Cunningham's focus and integrity. He knows what he loves to do, and he obviously doesn't like compromising his vision. I envy his thick skin. I am very self conscious about photographing people in the street, and how they might perceive that as an invasion of their privacy. He has no qualms about this.
During fashion week I have shot from almost every possible position. Front row, back row, middle row, and the media riser (where you see all the photographers -- the picture below, for example).
The places you might expect me to like the most, the front row and the media riser, I like the least.
The front row has three problems. (1) there is very little flexibility in the shot you can get, (2) people behind me get obscured by me and my giant lens and (3) I can get fewer interesting shows of the audience.
The media riser is a zoo. There is a lot of jostling and on at least one occasion I have got into it with another photographer. But the main problem with the riser is that the pictures you get, AT BEST, are going to look like every other photographer's pictures (style.com, etc.). Frontal, completely lit. Perfectly boring. And... no photos of the audience.
My preference is roaming around behind the audience taking pictures from different positions. Sometimes this gets very tricky when the shows are packed and it is hard to get a clear shot. You also seldom get perfect head to toe shots, and the lighting is insane because every part of the runway seems to be lit a little differently. Angie has to put up with a lot of cursing later as I try to white balance all the shots. Still, I love doing it this way. Every show comes out different.
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