New York artist Bill Cunningham captured in film

Obsessive artists often create exceptional bodies of work. Think of Simon Rodia constructing Watts Tower or Eugene Atget photographing the buildings of Paris.

Neither of these men considered themselves artists, and neither does Bill Cunningham. But based on the charming documentary “Bill Cunningham New York,” he deserves to be on the list.

A genial fanatic who completely lives for his work, the 80-something Cunningham can invariably be found doing what he’s done for half a century: pedaling around Manhattan on his bicycle with the energy of a man half his age, searching the streets for fashion trends.

Single-handedly responsible for the visuals in two weekly New York Times photo columns, “On the Street” and the more society-oriented “Evening Hours,” Cunningham says he uses his camera “like a pen. I use it to take notes.”

Because Cunningham is an intensely private individual, director Richard Press says that of the 10 years it took to make this admiring labor of love, eight were spent convincing the reluctant subject to participate.

That reticence meant that Press worked with no crew and used small, hand-held consumer cameras for the shoot, shadowing Cunningham as he piloted his 29th Schwinn bicycle (the first 28 were all stolen) around Manhattan’s mean streets in search of beauty.

His monastic devotion to his calling is legendary. Cunningham lived for decades in a tiny studio apartment above Carnegie Hall, filled almost exclusively with the file cabinets that hold his negatives.

He always wears the same clothes: inexpensive ponchos he continually repairs and blue jackets worn by French street sweepers. He has no interest in eating, sleeping or anything else.

Because Cunningham’s interest is so undeniably pure, and because he doesn’t believe in mocking or unkind photographs, he has legions of devoted readers, including Vogue editor Anna Wintour, who has famously said: “We all get dressed for Bill.”

A regular churchgoer, Cunningham has an almost religious regard for fashion, which he calls “the armor to survive the reality of everyday life.”

To do away with it, he says, “would be like doing away with civilization.” That is devotion for sure.