Billy Name and the "Factory People" photos story
Friday, December 14, 2007 at 11:39AM
Patrick Nagle in Andy Warhol's Factory People...Related Thoughts

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Billy Name was the creator of the Silver look of the Factory.

Billy had a party and Andy came over. Andy saw that Billy had done his entire apartment in silver foil, silver paint, silver everything. They became lovers for a brief time and Andy invited Billy to make his new loft/workspace all silver...hence The Silver Factory.

Andy made Billy the official gate keeper and archival photographer of all the activities and happenings in the Silver Factory. Billy was the only person who actually lived in the Factory for the entire period 1964-1968...in the darkroom.

He left the Factory after Andy was shot by Valerie Solanis, leaving behind 5000 photo negatives in his silver trunk. Years later he arrived back to New York and attended Andy's funeral. At the funeral, Paul Morrissey told him that Andy had always kept Billy's silver trunk for him and that he was free to take it. He took it. Billy's high contrast photos represent one of the key visual cornerstones of "Factory People". 

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