Wandering the deserted backroads of the American Southwest, Troy Paiva has explored the abandoned underbelly of America since the 1970s. Since 1989 he’s been taking pictures of it . . . at night, by the light of the full moon.

A multi-discipline artist, Troy needed to find a new medium to create personal art while he worked in a heavily art directed graphic design job. Sitting in on a few night photography classes, he had a revelation when the subject of light-painting came up. Here were techniques that would be perfect for capturing the atmosphere and mystery of the modern ghost towns and epic junkyards he was already exploring.

After years of development, Troy's early vision has been fully realized through his unique style and technique. The colored lighting is done with a flashlight or strobe flash masked with theatrical lighting gels. It's effect reanimates these dead places, turning them into mutant tableaus of some vaguely familiar parallel universe. The minutes-long exposures allow the stars to spiral around Polaris and the moving clouds to smear ethereally across the sky. Many of these subjects are already gone; bulldozed, burned down, subdivided, melted for scrap or simply vanished beneath the shifting desert sand.

While there are minor digital adjustments to some of the photographs, the lighting effects are all done “in-camera” during the exposure. These images are not Photoshop creations.

Since 1998 This Lost America site has been online in one form or another, and Troy's low cost / high impact lighting techniques have been adopted by amateur and professional photographers all over the world.

In addition to countless contributory appearances in print and on the web, Troy’s surrealist night photography has been published in two monographs: "Lost America" in 2003 and the award winning "Night Vision" in 2008. Both books examine the evolution and eventual abandonment of the communities, structures and social iconography spawned during 20th century America's western expansion--and the modern Urban Exploration culture that finds strange comfort in dancing through its ruins.

SHOWS
"Darkness Darkness" Three Columns Gallery, Harvard University, MA
"Darkness Darkness" The Boston Convention & Exhibition Center, Boston, MA
"Lost America" Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA
"Boneyard" Lucky JuJu Pinball Club, Alameda, CA
Truxtop Gallery, Silverlake, CA
The Montclair Gallery, Oakland, CA
“The Glory of Living”- Cyclorama performance at “The Playhouse” in San Francisco, CA.
Center For The Performing Arts, Mountain View, CA
The Brightmail Invitational Night Photography Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
St. Michael's Alley, Palo Alto, CA
Renzo Salon, San Francisco, CA
The 540 Club, San Francisco, CA
Mae’s Coffeehouse, Berkeley, CA

BOOKS
"Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration" monograph, Troy Paiva, Chronicle Books
“Lost America” monograph, Troy Paiva, Motorbooks International
“Night and Low-Light Photography” Amphoto Books. Contributing photographer and writer.
“Weird Arizona” Barnes and Noble Books. Contributing photographer and writer
“Weird California” Barnes and Noble Books. Contributing photographer and writer
“Weird Texas” Barnes and Noble Books. Contributing photographer and writer
“Weird Nevada” Barnes and Noble Books. Contributing photographer and writer
“Weird USA” Barnes and Noble Books. Contributing photographer
"Creative Vision” AVA Academia Books. Contributing photographer
“Lighting” AVA Academia Books. Contributing photographer
“As Long As The Moon Shall Rise” Holy Cow Press. Contributing photographer

MAGAZINES
"Hemmings Classic Car" magazine, feature article
"Air & Space Magazine" feature article
“Hot Rod” magazine, feature article
“Automobile Magazine” feature article
"Trend Magazine" feature article
"Car & Techno" magazine, feature article
“Times Journal of Photography” feature article, interview
“Digital Camera Magazine” feature article, interview
“Elena Magazine” feature Article, interview
“Focus Storia” 4 images.
"JPG Magazine"- Issue 5 “Photography is NOT a Crime”
"JPG Magazine"- Issue 10 “Beauty Redefined”
"Yahoo Magazine"
"Rod and Custom" magazine
"Popular Photography" magazine
"E Week" magazine

COVERS
"Snakebite"- Stan Ridgway
"Holiday in Dirt" - Stan Ridgway
“Lost Wages”- Magik Vapor
“So Much for the Classics”- Black & White Band
“Late for the Show"- Brian Rung
“Sound and Diversity”- Leiah
“Penny Black”- Penny Black
“Red Sands”- James O’Keefe
“Heart of Anthracite”- Campbell McGrath
"American Graveyards"- Ray Nayler, TTA Press
“Crimewave Magazine” Anthology, TTA Press

LECTURES
Las Vegas Book Festival
The Nocturnes Workshops
San Francisco City College
Santa Monica College
UC Berkeley Photo Department

All images and content of this site ©Troy Paiva / Lost America.
No unauthorized reproduction.