Amazing Black and White Photos Offer an Intimate Look Inside Andy Warhol’s Silver Factory

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“Billy’s photos were the only thing that ever came close to capturing the feel of the 1960s Silver Factory.” – Andy Warhol

This is the definitive and comprehensive collection of Billy Name’s black and white photographs from Warhol’s Factory. Billy’s photographs from this period (1964-68) are one of the most important photographic documents of any single artist in history.

Billy lived in a tiny closet at the Factory. He was responsible for the legendary ‘silverizing’ of the space using aluminium paint and aluminium foil to complete the instillation. Name became a photographer when Warhol gifted him 35-mm Honeywell Pentax; without any formal training, save for a brief camera manual, he built a darkroom for himself in the bathroom, where he soon found himself developing hundreds of frames of The Factory, of Warhol’s work, and of their friends: Lou Reed and the rest of The Velvet Underground, Edie Sedgwick, Bob Dylan, and countless others.

Andy Warhol on payphone at World’s Fair, 1964

Andy Warhol under My Hustler marquee at the Hudson Cinema, 1967

Andy Warhol carrying a Brillo Box sculpture with Billy Name’s cat Ruby at the Factory.

Andy Warhol with giant Baby Ruth bars, 1966

Andy Warhol with The Velvet Underground, Nico’s son Ari Delon, Mary Wronov, and Gerald Malanga, 1966

Billy and Jackie by Andy at Andy Warhol’s Factory, 1964

Brillo boxes at the Stable gallery, 1964

Nico #2, 1967

Nico Chelsea Girl, 1967

Coca-Cola bottles spray-painted silver at Andy Warhol’s factory, 1964

Susan Bottomley, International Velvet #1, 1966

Lou Reed, Sterling Morrison, Nico, Maureen and John Cale pose for the banana album cover.

(Images © Billy Name / Reel Art Press)