Puchner was born and grew up in Mistelbach an der Zaya, Lower Austria, where his parents owned a photo studio. In 1967 he moved to Vienna to attend photography classes at the Höhere Graphische Lehr- und Versuchsanstalt (Vienna Federal Training and Research Institute of Graphic Arts).After graduation in 1974 he taught photography there for two years.Since 1978 Puchner works as a freelance photographer and writer based in Vienna.In 1983 he started to study philosophy, history and sociology. Puchner finished his studies in 1988 with a master degree in philosophy. His thesis was "Über private Fotografie" (On Private Photography). Since 1988 he gave numerous speeches "On Private Photography" at universities, museums and galleries. Beginning in 1989 Puchner works regularly for the Wiener Zeitung (the oldest daily newspaper of the world).

Willy Puchner became famous with his project "Penguins - Traveling the World". For four years he traveled with his penguins Joe and Sally to the sites of his and our yearning: to the sea and into the desert, to New York, Sydney and Paris, Venice, Tokyo, Honolulu, Rome and Cairo, in order to capture them in photos. There they are now connected forever, lost forever. Before the penguins’ eyes the apparently familiar having been illustrated thousands of times, becomes different and new again.Freddy Langer, a journalist, wrote about this project in the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Zeitung (FAZ): "He let them pose in front of word famous sights, pretending they were tourists — and he took their photograph (picture, snapshot). So he created the most beautiful photo album regarding traveling of the 20th century: ”The Longings of the Penguins” (FAZ 08/03/2001)

Willy Puchner likes to work with old people, creating the projects "Die 90-jährigen" (At the Age of 90), "Dialog mit dem Alter" (Dialogue with the High Age), "Die 100-jährigen" (At the Age of 100), "Lebensgeschichte und Fotografie" (Oral History and Photography) and "Liebe im Alter" (Love at High Age).

4 stamps out of the book Tagebuch der Natur (diary of nature)

.

Extrablatt, konkret, Stern, GEO, Life (USA), Corriere della Sera (Italy), Marco Polo (Japan), Asahi Camera, (Japan), Universum ( Austria), Falter, Wiener Zeitung