Willy Rizzo was one of the world’s most celebrated photographers and his furniture designs defined the mid-century élan of Paris and Rome. Madame Dominique Rizzo, co-founder of Studio Willy Rizzo, sat down with Cultural Union to talk about the life and work of her husband and the ongoing success of their studio.

To step into the Paris gallery of Studio Willy Rizzo is to be transported into a wonderland of golden-age French and Italian glamour. But Willy Rizzo – whose name resonates throughout the world of 20th-century photography and design – didn’t just chronicle the era’s glamour. He was the glamour. From war reportage to the Nuremberg trials, Mr Rizzo had the credibility of hard journalism – but he also had a talent for recording the good life. Whether Le Corbusier in the 1950s or Jack Nicholson in the 2010s, Willy Rizzo’s images had the candour of capturing not subjects but friends – which in many cases, they were.

Studio Willy Rizzo is a manifestation of his virtuosity as both a photographer and a designer. That the studio thrives over a decade after he died is a testament to the skill and dedication of his wife, Madame Dominique Rizzo, alongside their children Camilla, Gloria and Willy Junior. Madame Rizzo, who herself embodies the glamour of her late husband’s golden-age coterie, has successfully carried forward the studio they founded together in 2009 to a point where its relevance is uncontested as one of the essential galleries of the world’s top interior designers and collectors.

Madame Rizzo describes how Willy Rizzo’s life as a photographer began around the age of 12: “His mother gave him a small Agfa box camera, and he was hooked. Observing and capturing life came naturally to him.”

Mr Rizzo’s early career was helped by his sharp eye and his breezy and engaging personality – attributes that earned him assignments with French publications such as Ciné Mondial. “He began by photographing French starlets and beautiful women,” Madame Rizzo explains. After the war – during which he joined the Resistance – Willy Rizzo moved to the UK to work for the Black Star agency, who assigned him to the United States. “They asked him to photograph anything strange or new,” she says, “like a vending machine selling stockings.”

“Willy had a natural sense of beauty and aesthetics.”

Dominique Rizzo

By 1948, Mr Rizzo was running his own agency in Los Angeles when he was recruited by the nascent Paris Match. “Willy was already skilled in colour photography, which was rare at the time,” says Madame Rizzo. “He joined from the magazine’s third issue and went on to create over 200 covers.”

Madame Rizzo describes his images as deeply evocative: “You could sense the person and the moment in his work. His photos from the Nuremberg trials captured the courtroom’s atmosphere, while his portraits – whether of Ingrid Bergman or Le Corbusier – revealed their essence.”

Mr Rizzo’s work frequently defied convention, taking him to “forbidden situations,” from photographing prisoners to secretive night-time shoots. “His images were never bleak,” Madame Rizzo notes. “They were optimistic, strong, and human.”

In 1968, Mr Rizzo’s creative journey pivoted to furniture design. “Willy had a natural sense of beauty and aesthetics from his work as a photographer,” says Madame Rizzo. “At the time, Swedish furniture was popular, but Willy found it too sterile and uncomfortable.” When Mr Rizzo moved to Rome in the mix-1960s with his then-wife, actor Elsa Martinelli, he began creating pieces for his own apartment. Designing sofas, coffee tables and consoles, Willy Rizzo quickly found he had a flair for it. 

“You could sense the person and the moment in his work. His photos from the Nuremberg trials captured the courtroom’s atmosphere, while his portraits – whether of Ingrid Bergman or Le Corbusier – revealed their essence.”

Dominique Rizzo

And so did others: his buzzing social circle took note and started to request his pieces for their own apartments. These included his friends Salvador Dali and Brigitte Bardot – and Igor (Ghighi) Cassini, the man who coined the term Jet Set. By 1970, he had opened a workshop in Tivoli to meet demand.

“Rome suited him more than Paris at that point in his life,” says Madame Rizzo, “though his Parisian sensibility was always present.” Rizzo’s hallmark was his use of noble materials – fine woods, stainless steel, marble, and leather. “At first, he used print instead of lacquer,” Madame Rizzo recalls, “but by the mid-1970s, he transitioned to using high-quality lacquer techniques with seven layers of polish.”

Willy Rizzo’s hands-on approach defined his design process. “Willy wasn’t interested in the financial side – he left that to others,” Madame Rizzo says. “He would come to the workshop with an idea, saying, ‘I want a lamp like this.’ The artisans would often tell him it was impossible, but he pushed them until it became reality.”

His pieces, like the iconic TRG coffee table – now one of Studio Willy Rizzo’s most popular pieces – with its ingenious turning mechanism, were the result of this collaborative trial-and-error method. “He didn’t just design on paper; he worked directly with the materials and artisans to refine his ideas.” 

Reflecting on the era, Madame Rizzo paints a vivid picture of an artist surrounded by brilliance. “Willy was always among great artists – Édith Piaf, Fellini, Rossellini. Rome in the 1960s felt like the golden age, perhaps even more so than Paris. In Paris, it was the beginning of La Nouvelle Vague.”

Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, Rizzo defined the aesthetic and attitude of both cities; and at one point, the studio was employing 150 people.

But by 1978, Rizzo – who had never set out to be running a sizeable enterprise – itched to return to the itinerant life of a bohemian photographer, and sold up. A year later, Willy Rizzo married Dominique. 

As the decades passed, Willy and Dominique raised a family and continued to live the good life. Willy remained in demand as a photographer – particularly with American actors. “He became great friends with Jack Nicholson – who for 25 years stayed for the summer with us – more like family. And Sean Penn, Bruce Willis. The actors of that era – they really liked him.” Mr Rizzo even cameoed for his friend Jack Nicholson in the film Hoffa.

As the decades passed, interest in the pieces Willy had designed did not abate. A series of increasingly high-profile exhibitions were mounted around the world including Mallett in New York, with Paul Smith in London, and many others from Moscow to Tokyo. “It was fashionable,” says Madame Rizzo. “Everyone wanted to do something with his work. And when Willy saw all his pieces together at Grimaldi in Monaco, he said he was ready to design again.”

So in 2009, the couple formed Studio Willy Rizzo to preserve the legacy for future generations. Starting as a small design space, the studio grew into a hub for new creations and refinements of Rizzo’s original sketches and designs. “We still find unused designs,” Dominique Rizzo says. “We adapt finishes for modern tastes – brass might become a darker Canaletto finish or feature mother-of-pearl. His pieces work in both modern and classic interiors.”

At the heart of the collection, of course, are the original designs from the 1960s and 70s – and the great advantage of their originality when first created is that they have remained timeless, retaining the élan of the period while feeling fully contemporary, particularly with their updated iterations of colour or finish. For example, a highlight of Studio Willy Rizzo’s stand at this year’s PAD London was their Presidential Desk – a classic of the original Willy Rizzo designs, but seen for the very first time in scarlet brushed steel.

Another favourite at recent PADs in London and Paris are the games tables. “In 1973, backgammon became really fashionable, thanks to Arnaud de Rosnay,” says Madame Rizzo. “Willy made the games table, and it was a big success.” The tables are fabulous – from the original brass-edged backgammon tables to chess tables in orange lacquer.

Perhaps most famous of all are the coffee tables. The round TRG is consistently found in top-end interior design projects and the homes of rock stars and fashion royalty. Millions of viewers each week see one on the set of BBC’s top-rated Graham Norton Show. With its revolving mechanism and sunken tray for bottles, it evokes the high living of the era, while its sculptural form is entirely contemporary.

So too is the rectangular TRV coffee table, with its clean, Modernist lines in lacquer, brushed steel or brass. Willy Rizzo once said of the TRV: “These are not designed to be ‘gadget’ furniture; they are definitive and indestructible pieces made to last the test of time.”

Other classics which remain in demand are the Love Lights – which Rizzo created “to be the proper lighting for flirting,” says Madame Rizzo. Then there is the to-die-for coolness of the SC115 Hi-Fi Furniture – a future-retro-fabulous music system that had heads turning at PAD Paris and London this year. Salvador Dalí bought one in the seventies. A new version is in the works, with fully updated technology, and is sure to be one of next year’s most desirable products.

With new generations discovering Willy Rizzo’s work, it continues to captivate. “His images tell stories,” Madame Rizzo says, “and his furniture embodies elegance and innovation.”

And gesturing to the multitude of iconic photographs and designs at Studio Willy Rizzo on Rue de Verneuil in Paris, Dominique Rizzo says: “In this place, I still have his soul.”