Troy Paiva

Cuervo de Amor

Film photography

“I have been creating light-painted night photography in abandoned locations and junkyards since 1989. My documentarian, yet surrealist, sometimes playful, sometimes haunting work examines the evolution and eventual abandonment of the communities, infrastructure, and social iconography spawned during America’s 20th-century expansion into the cities and deserts of the West, and the intensely exhilarating, yet strangely comforting act of sneaking around in the middle of the night, creating art from its ruins." —

- Troy Paiva

About the artist

Troy Paiva

I’ve been using light-painted, full moon-lit night photography to capture the abandoned American West for over 25 years. Telling the story of the ghosts of America’s Western expansion, from a post-wild west, post-route 66, 21st-century perspective has become a never-ending source of inspiration. My documentarian yet surrealist, sometimes playful, sometimes haunting work examines the final days of decommissioned military bases, NASA installations, derelict ocean liners, airliner boneyards, Hollywood prop graveyards, and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of abandoned amusement park rides, trains stations, hospitals, gas stations, hotels, even entire towns, and the intensely exhilarating yet strangely comforting act of sneaking around in the middle of the night, creating art from their ruins.