T R O Y P A I V A
Troy Paiva has been an artist all his life. From sitting in the back row in grade school and drawing cars and airplanes on his notebooks to the freelance design of mass market toy products for major corporations like Hasbro, Wham-o! and Mattel. It wasn't until he was in his late 20's that he picked up on photography as a new way to be creative. He uses it as a method to "decompress" from the high pressure commercial art world.
Several trips to the desert as a child opened Troy's eyes to the spectacular vastness of the American southwest. As a teenager, he would take two or three day, 2000 mile drives in the remote desert wastelands with his friends. He gladly took the late night driving shifts and watched with fascination as the countless abandoned and bypassed roadside buildings and towns unreeled in the windshield, dead and forgotten.
In the late 80's, he sat in on a few night photography classes and had a revelation. Here were techniques that were perfect to capture the true atmosphere and mystery of these modern ghost towns. This technique IS NOT digitally enhanced nor are there any darkroom tricks involved. All the lighting you see was done in camera on location.
Over the last few years Troys night shots have been getting exhibitions and appearing in various publications including "Yahoo Magazine", "Popular Photography", "Rod and Custom" and several rock band CD covers.
Most of America's 20th Century waste from its "disposable" culture seems to have found its way onto the the shoulders of the southwestern highways and none of it is safe from the camera and brightly colored strobe of Troy Paiva.
Recently, Troy has also been utilizing his 3D modeling software to create some unusual cartoon flavored large scale fine art pieces. At this moment he is striving to get some of this computer generated art some gallery space.
Make sure you visit Troy's online night photography gallery at - http://www.lostamerica.com/lostframe.html
Also visit Troy's artwork in other media at - http://www.designshed.com/shedframe.html
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