Willy Wilson

Willy Wilson is an artist who uses photography as both a foundation and a material, transforming her own images into layered, dimensional works. She experiments with materiality, printing on unexpected surfaces—fashion fabrics, aluminum foil, used teabags, and found book pages—to merge industrial imagery with traditionally domestic or decorative materials. Her work questions the boundaries between art and craft, permanence and decay, and how labor is valued and gendered.

For over 30 years, Willy has photographed demolitions, drawn to the way buildings break down and return to something more organic. The exposed interiors of these structures, like the viscera of something once alive, reveal layers of history and transformation. In her work, she brings these images into dialogue with materials traditionally associated with women’s labor—sewing, craft, and domestic work—creating a space where these seemingly opposing worlds intersect.

Alongside her photographic work, Willy creates artist books that extend her exploration of visual storytelling. Initially drawn to collage journaling as a way to engage with imagery beyond the single frame, she began incorporating found books and papers into her practice. Using old books as both material and structure, she layers, prints, and alters their pages, merging their original forms with her own responses. The yellowed paper, typefaces, and physicality of these books provide a rich surface for experimentation—where images are treated less as illustration and more as raw material, like texture or color. These books become an ongoing dialogue between past and present, preservation and transformation.

With a background spanning photography, fashion, film, and design, Willy’s practice is rooted in experimentation and process. In 2023, she was named Photographer of the Year by the National Association of Portrait & Child Photographers, recognizing her ability to merge technical precision with artistic exploration.