Photographer Profile: Troy Paiva

California Photographer Troy Paiva released an amazing photography book this past July - Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration. Troy's color saturated images of abandoned urban/industrial landscapes. According to the book review:

A booming subculture is on the rise: dubbed Urban Exploration, it involves sneaking into abandoned or off-limits factories, aviation "boneyards," decommissioned bases, and other derelict features of the military/industrial landscape. Troy Paiva is a foremost photographer of the UrbEx (as it's known to its devotees) phenomenon, and his distinctive blend of atmospheric night photos and lighting effects are the visual hallmarks of a scene that has drawn the increasing attention of the media and the public—as seen in recent programs on both the Discovery Channel ("Urban Explorers") and MTV ("Fear"). Illuminated by histories of the sites documented, Night Vision reveals the remarkable discoveries of a new generation of explorers.

I first became familiar with Troy's work though his presence on the music discussion website Progressive Ears, and from there, saw images from his previous book Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West (2003). You can view some of his work on his website, Lost America. Troy's images could be described as cinematic, and have been likened to Italian director Dario Argento's striking color scenes in his earlier works. Troy discusses his night photography technique here. He will also be conducting a night photography / light painting workshop in mid October. Read more about that here. Read more about Troy here.