Billy Name born 22 February 1940Billy Linich, known as Billy Name and more recently Billy Goat, is an American photographer, artist, filmmaker, lighting designer, and the main archivist of the Warhol era from 1964-70.
His brief romance and subsequent close friendship with Andy Warhol fostered substantial collaboration on Warhol's most influential work, including his films, paintings and sculpture. Linich became Billy Name among the coterie known as the Warhol Superstars, and he is considered one of the most significant. He was responsible for 'silverizing' Warhol's New York studio the Factory, where he lived until 1970.
When Andy Warhol decided, during the last months of 1963, that he was too busy making films to take pictures at The Factory (and, besides, the camera was too complicated and it had too many buttons), he turned the task over to Billy Name. Prior to his association with Andy, in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Linich had been involved in theatrical lighting design.
Within a short time, Linich became a permanent fixture at the Factory, having taken up residence in the back of the studio at 231 East 47th Street during his trademark silvering of its interior from January to April 1964. With the gift of Andy’s 35-mm single-lens reflex Honeywell Pentax camera and the operating manual in hand, Billy Name taught himself the technical aspects of photography. He had soon converted one of the Factory’s bathrooms into a darkroom where he mastered the methods of processing and developing film. These newly acquired skills, combined with his background in lighting, his innate sense of artistry and his desire to experiment, resulted in the production of an intensive body of work that captured for posterity his 'silver years' at the Factory (1963-70).
Billy Name’s close friendship with Andy Warhol and his role as a trusted player in the making of Warhol’s artistic environment gave him the opportunity to focus his keen eye on the scene at the Factory, created by a core group of participants who largely improvised before the camera’s eye, evolving a lively, cutting-edge mise-en-scene. Billy contributed immensely to this atmosphere, as his understanding of theatre and lighting was important as was the essential look itself of the transformed space and silvered walls of the factory. The unique position that Billy assumed gives his photographs a particular immediacy, intimacy and knowledge.
Billy Name left the Factory in early 1970 because he felt 'isolated' and thought he should 'find out what was going on the world'. He felt that Paul Morrissey and Fred Hughes had pretty much taken over the operations and that Warhol didn't 'need' him anymore.Billy Name lives in his native New York state and continues to do photography. As one of the key survivors of the classic Factory era, he is regularly sought out for documentaries and interviews.
Billy Name - Official Website