【Why don't you???】ビルみたいに生きてみたらどう？Why Don't You... Try to Live Like Bill?

Why don't you?

ビルみたいに生きてみたらどう？

Why Don't You... Try to Live Like Bill?

You can read this post in English HERE

ビル•カンニンガムって知ってる？

NYのストリートのファッションを4０年間も撮り続ける

８０歳のおじいちゃんのフォトグラファーよ

もうね、びっくりしたわよ

おじいちゃん写真家のドキュメンタリーにあんなに泣かされるとはね

予想したような子供だましのファッションフィルムではなかったわ

説明するのはめんどうだからストーリーはココを見てチェックしてね

ニューヨークタイムズの連載

彼の人となりを表すgreat wordsだけ下にいくつか紹介するわ

"I let the street speak to me."

"If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid. That’s the key to the whole thing."

"Money is the cheapest thing. Freedom is the most expensive thing."

"I don’t think you could do away with it (fashion). It would be like doing away with civilization."

"My dear, it’s not work, it’s pleasure."

"I don’t work, I only know how to have fun everyday."

このおじさんね、すっごく質素なとこに住んでるのよ

食べるものも、subway以下のジャンクフード

来ている服もwall martに売ってる清掃員の作業着の

青いブルゾンの破れた箇所をテープで貼りながらずっと着てるのよ

彼は毎朝、カーネギーホールのぼろくて小さなアパートを出て、

自転車で颯爽とNYの街を駆け抜けるの

通勤のそれとは違う

彼の毎朝の登場にはエネルギーと光がある

そして彼は街ゆく人の、美しい、過激で衝撃的なファッション、

それを纏う人間が横切る瞬間にピントをあわせ続けるの

着飾る女性といったら嫌らしい響きかもしれないけれど

南国の鳥のように装う女性の姿を撮るのが本当に好きなんですって

この仕事が好きすぎて今まで一度も恋愛すらしたことがないというのよ

そんな時間があったら彼はストリートに出て、美しい装いの瞬間を切り取り続ける

何が泣けるかってね、道で（きっと彼にとっては日常よ）

素敵なファッションをしている人の写真を撮っている彼の顔が

無邪気で、笑顔で、幸せそうなのよ

すっごい笑ってるの

何十年も毎日やってんのよ？

普通なら飽きて、慣れて、怠惰になるわよね？

それに彼にはこの仕事以外なにもないのよ？？？

家族も、NYらしいラグジュアリーな生活も

それは彼が望まないからだけれど

大きなファッション誌で仕事をしていたこともあったらしいけど

報酬は一銭も受け取らなかったんですって

お金で自分の作品の自由を奪われるのが嫌だからって

もちろんその道一筋、NYタイムズに連載を持ち

彼を知らないファッションピープルはいないくらいなんだから

富を得ようと思えばいくらでも手に入る人よ

でもね

富で得られるものなんて、彼がストリートのfunnyでfabulousなファッションを毎日撮り続けるワクワクには叶わないのよ

素敵だと思わない？

何回かの連載で言わせてもらってるけど、多くの価値観なんて、世間や他人のものをなぞっただけで、あなたの価値観ではないのよ

それに気づくのは、多くは経験してからでしょうけど

（特にわたしは魂が幼いからそうなの）

わたしだって、雑誌かなんかでファーストクラスが素敵と思えば、恋人に乗せてもらったこともあったし（結局エコノミーよりも頭痛がしたわ）

プール＆お手伝いさん付きの家に自分で住みたいと思えば、物価が３分の１の国で実現してみたりしたけど、感動は最初だけ。

一週間もすれば景色になっちゃってね。

そんな生活の中で一番感動するのは屋台の１２０円のお粥だったりするのよ

ラグジュアリーで美意識のある生活は素敵だと思うけど、

それが目的になっちゃうとダメよ

そりゃ雑誌や広告はそういうものをもてはやすわよ

金になるから

それを目標にしちゃうと、結局は世間が作り出したビジネスのための価値で、達成したとしても、満足感が得られない結果に虚しい事になるわね

（ああ、早く気づいてよかった。よくいるわよね。欲求不満のセレブ）

職業とかもそうよね。みんなが憧れるから、自分もなってみたけど、向いてない、、、みたいのよくあるでしょ

何が一番幸せか、ビルを観てれば分かるでしょ

自分自身が毎日ワクワクできる、それこそ生涯の女すら必要のなくなる（恋愛がデザートにもならない）ライフワーク（ワークってついてるけど、必ずしも労働ではなくて日々行うことね）を持っていることが一番幸せよ

毎瞬人生に飛び出していける

それに出会うこと

それを自分で見つけること

自分だけの価値観を持つ事がその人の人生を幸福の渦へ導くのよ

別に写真家じゃなくても、ストリートじゃなくてもいいのよ

それはある人にとってはお花屋さんかもしれないし

教師かもしれないし、エンジニアかもしれないし、船長かもしれないし

あんただけのそれを探しなさいっていってるのよ

この記事に少しでも気持ちが動いたなら

映画を観てみなさい

それでわたしみたいに涙こぼしちゃったなら

ビルみたいに生きてみたらどう？

♠♠♠♠

これは監督のインタビューよ

彼もビルの真理を言ってるわね

──ビルを知って、あなたは何を学んだと思いますか？

それは自分が好きだと思えることを、やり通すことが大事であるということ。自分がやっていることが他の人に何かしらの役に立っていると思えることも大事だし、そのために自分を捧げることも大事だし、しかもそれでいて自分が本当に心から楽しめるということがすごく大事だね。自分のやっていることを楽しめないんだったら、やる必要ないってこと。誰もが毎朝起きて、自分の好きなことをして生きていくべきなんだ。それがこの映画を作って僕自身が一番学んだことだった。でも僕は、ビルほど純粋にそれを追求することはできないけどね（笑）。

──しかし、ひとつ気になるのは、ビルは本当に孤独ではないのか、友達がいなくて本当に幸せなのかと思ったりします。彼を傍で見ていて、彼は本当に幸せだと思いますか？

ビルは本当に幸せだと思うよ。彼は自分が幸せになるために人生の選択をして、人生を作り上げてきた人だから。もちろん、そういう選択をすると、犠牲となるものが出てくる。でもそれって誰の人生においても同じだと思うんだ。ある選択をしたために、失うものがあるというのはね。彼は自分でこの人生を生きる決意をして、それを生き抜いている人なんだ。それが彼にとっての幸せなんだよ。この映画を見てもらえば分かるけど、彼がストリートで写真を撮っている時、笑顔で一杯だ。あの笑顔はリアル以外の何ものでもないよ（笑）。

VOGUE.jp

あの『ビル・カニンガム＆ニューヨーク』の秘話を独占取材！　リチャード・プレス監督にインタビュー

Why don't you try to live like Bill?

First of all, you may be thinking, who is Bill, right?

Have you heard of Bill Cunningham?

He is an 80 year old photographer who's been taking photographs of the NY street fashion for over 40 years.

I was really surprised about how watching a documentary about an old photographer made me cry!

It was not a kid-stuff fashion film as I expected. Try to get hold of it.

I'm just going to quote some of his great words from a series of articles about him in the New York Times:

"I let the street speak to me".

"If you don’t take money, they can’t tell you what to do, kid. That’s the key to the whole thing".

"Money is the cheapest thing. Freedom is the most expensive thing".

"I don’t think you could do away with it (fashion). It would be like doing away with civilization".

"My dear, it’s not work, it’s pleasure".

"I don’t work, I only know how to have fun everyday".

This guy lives in a very simple place and eats junk food, worse than Subway.

He wears something that looks like a raincoat, the kind they sell in Walmart America and a blue blouson which he wears all the time; its tears are patched together with tape.

Every morning he leaves his shabby little apartment near Carnegie Hall and sails out jauntily on his bicycle to the streets of NY.

This is different than commuting; there's energy and a spark to his daily morning appearance.

Then he focuses his lens on people who walk the streets, wearing beautiful, radical fashion, at the moment they cut through the crowd.

Maybe the words "dolled up women" have a nasty sound to them, but what he really likes is taking pictures of women who are dressed like a bird from a southern country.

He loves his work so much he says that he has never been in love in his entire life. If he had time for love, he'd rather get to the streets and cut up some more beautiful moments from life. 

So, what made me cry, you ask. Well, his face as he takes pictures of people in beautiful outfits on the street (which for him is an everyday event).

His face is so innocent, so child-like and happy.

He laughs so much. How many years has he been doing this? Normally you would get tired of something, get used to it and get a little lazy, right?

Moreover, he doesn't have anything else in life other than his work???

He doesn't have a family, he doesn't have the NY luxury lifestyle and he doesn't aspire to any of that.

Apparently he did work in the past for a large fashion magazine, but he wouldn't take a penny because he didn't want to have the freedom of his creation snatched away for money.

Of course, at some stage along the way he had a column in the NY Times and there are no fashion people whom he doesn't know, so had he thought of getting wealthy, it was within his reach.

Don't you think that's lovely?

However, as far as he is concerned, no wealth compares to the excitement that he gets from shooting the funny, fabulous fashion on the streets of NY.

I have said this over and over in a few of my posts, that the majority of values we are taught, for playing along with the world and with other people, are not our own values.

You notice this probably only after you've experienced many things (especially me, whose spirit is a little childish).

Take me for example, I saw an ad for first class in a magazine and thought it would be lovely to fly first class. My boyfriend got me tickets (never mind that finally it turned out to be a bigger headache than economy).

I thought that I'd like to live in a house with a pool and a maid, then realized that dream in a country where the cost of living is a 1/3 of that of Japan, but the excitement lasted only in the beginning. After a week, it became scenery. 

In that life, the thing that excited me the most was a $1 porridge I bought at a street stall. 

I think a life of luxury and beauty is nice, but it should never be your goal.

Ads in magazine lionize these things, but that's because it brings them money.

If you make that your goal, then eventually even if you achieve it, under the business value that that world produces, you will not be able to achieve a sense of satisfaction and you will end up with a fruitless act without results.

(Oh, I wish I had noticed that quicker. There are many dissatisfied celebrities, aren't there?)

The same goes for your profession. Everybody's after profession x so I tried it as well, but it wasn't for me... That happens often, doesn't it?

What makes you the happiest? If you look at Bill, you will know.

A life work, that enables you to feel that excitement every day, A life's work that makes even women unnecessary (love doesn't even become desert).

(I say work, but that doesn't mean laboring, it's something you do every day.)

When you have that, you're the happiest.

When you can jump at life every moment, coming across that thing, finding that thing yourself while

holding on to your own personal values, that is what leads this man into the whirlpool of his life's happiness.

It doesn't necessarily have to be a photographer and it doesn't necessarily have to be on the street.

For someone else it might be a flower shop, or a teacher, or an engineer, or a captain of a boat.

I'm saying, go and find the thing that is just yours.

If this article moved anything even slightly within you, then go watch that movie.

If your tears roll down the way mine did, then how about living like Bill?

***********

This is the director's interview.

He also talks about Bill's truth:

Q: What do you think you've learnt from knowing Bill?

A: That it's important to carry out whatever it is that you like doing. It's important to think that what you are doing is somehow useful to others. It's important to devote yourself to that thing, but at the same time it is extremely important that it is something you can really enjoy doing. If you can't enjoy what you're doing then there's no need to do it. Everybody should wake up in the morning, go do what they like doing and go through life that way. That is what I learned the most, making this film. But I can't pursue that in the same purity as Bill does (laugh).

Q: However, there's one thing that disturbed me. Isn't Bill lonely? Is he really happy without any friends? Looking at him from the side, do you think he is really happy?

A: I think Bill is really happy. He chose this way of life in order to make himself happy and created his life that way. Of course, when you make choices like that, there are sacrifices you have to make. But I think that is the same in every kind of life. In order to make one choice, you lose something. He decided himself to live his life this way and he survives it. This for him is happiness. I think you will understand if you watch this film, but his face lights up with a smile when he takes pictures on the street. That smiling face is nothing but the real thing (laugh).

(Excerpt from an interview with Richard Press, director of the film "Bill Cunningham New York: Untold stories and exclusive coverage", in Vogue Japan.)