Between 1977 and 1985, Swiss photographer Willy Spiller lived in New York and Los Angeles. Fascinated by the speed, the energy and the absurdity of the 1970s and 1980s, he roamed the streets far and wide with his camera. Whether it was rides on the subway, dancers at the legendary Studio 54, hip-hop culture in the streets of New York or the poolside life of Los Angeles’ high society, Spiller captured all the many facets of a bygone world in images as varied, as fascinating and as absurd as that world itself had been. In the process, he combines his curiosity for his fellow human beings with a profound understanding of the beauty of the banal and mundane in the world around him. It is this that ensures his place in the annals of great Swiss photography. Like many of the resonating names before him, he managed to translate empathy into form through strength of will. Or, as his long-time friend and companion, novelist Paul Nizon so aptly put it: “I’ve often asked myself what made Willy Spiller‘s photography so forthright, so refreshing and so riveting. I believe it’s a blend of unabashed curiosity and roguish complexity combined with a fraternal sense of compassion. It isn’t something you learn at school: it‘s more a question of class, of predisposition, and ultimately of character. Behind the swashbuckling, wheeler-dealing façade is a dreamer, a man hungry for life and beauty. And that is the reason he sides with humanity, which is just another way of saying that he had an innate love of mankind. That is the way he sees things. And it is driven by a highly developed artistic energy.”
