PAC In Conversation with Troy Paiva, local photographer and award-winning author
Troy Paiva is a renowned night photographer and award-winning author of two books, “Night Vision: The Art of Urban Exploration” and “Lost America: The Abandoned Roadside West”. Troy’s evocative photographs of abandoned places has inspired a global audience and his website boasts tens of millions of viewers.
PAC Boardmember, Mary Alice Bowie recently interviewed Troy to learn more about what drives him to pursue this unique art form.
PAC: When were you first aware that you wanted to be an artist? And, what type of artwork have you done that led to this particular art form?
Troy: I dunno exactly, but it was from a very early age. I was that kid that who sat in the back of class drawing cars and airplanes, all the way through grade school.
I've worked commercially as an artist my entire life. I've been paid to draw, paint, design, conceptualize, sculpt, marker render, draft, digitally-illustrate, 3D model, write and take photographs. I've just always made stuff.
The locations for this work stem from a life long obsession with abandoned places. Starting with old west ghost towns as a child and moving to the recently bypassed roadsides of the West and junkyards, as a teenager, and then into pretty much any lapsed space, as I got older.
PAC: What is your favorite thing about doing night photography? Your most challenging?
Troy: It's the process, the act of doing it. I love that. The gratification of making good images comes later, after processing the files at home, but the actual experience in these strange and mysterious places, that's what keeps me coming back.
PAC: Why are you interested in capturing ruins, photographically?
Troy: Humans have always been romanced by ruins, but it's been largely missing from the American zeitgeist because we're such a young country–we haven't had any real ruins to call our own. By the end of the 20th Century that had changed though, as technology and infrastructure evolved so quickly over the course of the last 50 years. Today, many Americans under the age of 30 seem to be obsessed with the ruins and decay of the "American Century." It's become a pop-culture phenomenon.
PAC: How does it feel to have 50 million hits on your website?
Troy: When I first put the work online in 1998, I had no idea that it would become the phenomenon it has become. My online presence in those early days of the web really helped establish me as the first to adapt these photographic techniques to the ruins milieu.
PAC: In addition to your photography, you are a very good writer and won "Best Photo Book of the Year" at the NY Book Fair in 2009. Do you enjoy writing about what you do?
Troy: Thank you. Yes, I'm extremely passionate about my work and while I do enjoy writing about it, I find writing to be one of the most difficult artistic mediums to master. I would gladly play Ralph Steadman and provide the visual accompaniment to some up-and-coming young Hunter Thompson, whose writing examines the pop culture ramifications of the whole exploration scene. I'm a visual artist first.
PAC: What accomplishment are you most proud of?
Troy: Creating two books and getting my first museum shows and international exhibitions. They all feel like big steps for me.
PAC: Which museums have shown your works? What international exhibitions have you participated in?
Troy: I currently have museum shows in Bolinas, California and Alingsas, Sweden.
PAC: What would you like to do in the future?
Troy: I'd like to see my work accepted by the cognoscenti and major museums. I'd like to see this aesthetic, this light-painted, full-moon, abandonments-based school of photography that I fostered, be recognized, in my lifetime.
PAC: Did you create this aesthetic?
Troy: It depends on how strictly you interpret it. Please understand: night and time exposure photography has been around since the beginning of photography (the very first photograph was an 8-hour exposure). Light painting has been around for over 100 years (but became something of a lost art with the advent of studio lighting in the 1930s) and the love of ruins dates back to prehistory, but I was the first to combine these three elements in this very specific way. My work has a very specific look and style that simply didn't exist, before I started doing it.
PAC: How do you “paint with light”?
Troy: Light painting is the act of adding light to the image during a time exposure from hand-held sources, whether it's from simple household flashlights, or a strobe-flash. It's similar to studio lighting in some respects, but it's much freer and more painterly, because it's all done by hand.
PAC: Are there others doing this too? Is there a true “school”?
Troy: Yes. With the advent of digital photography, the modern DSLR's ability to linearly gauge exposure and preview the image on the back of the camera has made night photography and light painting much easier. Millions are experimenting with night photography today. You need only to search online to find literally thousands of amateurs and pros experimenting with this exact style in the same kinds of locations, sometimes even the same exact locations.
PAC: Can you tell us about what you are currently working on, and about what you enjoy about teaching, and sharing information through the avenues that you do?
Troy: I try to shoot every full moon phase. I currently have several locations that I've either shot partially, or that I'm trying to gain access to. I'm always on the lookout for the next location. I'm always looking for the next way to get my work seen, sold and monetized. With the collapse of the publishing industry, I'm starting to educate myself on e-books and selling my work disguised as "how to" night photography pieces for iPhone/iPad apps.
PAC: Is self-publishing or producing e-books the answer to getting work out there if it is not being picked up by publishing houses?
Troy: Yes, there are many venues for self-publishing today. I personally know many photographers who are using companies like Lulu and Blurb to make their own photo books now. The problem is; it's a very expensive proposition, with your wholesale cost at $50-$100 per book. While it's nice for making a few copies for collectors or friends, it's simply not a viable retail business model. Maybe that will change in the next few years, but I personally think e-books are the future of publishing. Time will tell.
PAC: What does it feel like to head out to a remote, lonely place?
Troy: It's exhilarating. Liberating. Emotional and romantic. It's also technically challenging.
PAC: What kind of technical challenges do you come across?
Troy: Aside from the very technical aspect of actually doing time-exposure-based, light painted night photography, there is the issue of gaining access to these kinds of locations. When I first started out, I snuck into every location I shot. Now it's about 50%. I find it's easier to just ask for access now, but that requires a whole other skill-set: dealing with property owners and caretakers. And then once you're in, these sites can be very dangerous. Black mold, asbestos, rotten floors, spiders and snakes to name a few! The list of things that can hurt/kill you is very long.
PAC: Are you worried about safety when being in these desolate places?
Troy: It's something I am constantly aware of, yes. I always tell people to just be smart and conscious of what you're doing. Challenging your comfort zone is good, but don't totally over-reach your capabilities.
PAC: You’ve mentioned you find these isolated places emotional. Can you tell us why?
Troy: I'm drawn to the solitude and the mystery. You know that feeling of timelessness and grandeur people have when they visit Yosemite Valley? I get it in these abandoned locations. Wandering through an abandoned tract of housing, empty and decaying homes and apartment buildings as far as the eye can see, on a remote, city-sized decommissioned military base . . . alone, in the middle of the night . . . it can be a life-changing experience. The feeling of finiteness, of the fragility of everything we just take for granted, is overwhelming. I try to capture and enhance this awe and emotion in the work.
PAC: What is a typical day on location for you? Please give us an insight into your process in the field.
Troy: Sleep til noon, watch cartoons, you know. Actually, when I'm on the road shooting, I like to establish a base camp in a cheap motel, in a small town, out in the middle of nowhere. During the afternoon I'll drive out and start scouting for locations. I'll stop when I find something interesting, to assess it for “shootability”. I ask myself, Are there residents on site, or nearby who I need to talk to? Will the location be bathed in ugly sodium vapor streetlight? I'll continue on, compiling a list of possible locations until dark, at which point I'll turn around and shoot my way back to the motel by 3 or 4 AM. Sleep 'til noon, watch cartoons and repeat!
PAC: What about the actual process of shooting? What are you thinking about out there?
Troy: I keep it very loose and empty-headed. I like keeping things unplanned and seat-of-the-pants, preferring to take what the site gives me. I look for where the best looking clouds are, or where the brightest stars are and find a subject that will look good under them. Same goes with the style and color of my lighting. I just assess what the scene needs under those conditions right now and light it. I review the image on the back of the camera and adjust and repeat. There is a lot of down time doing this work. Because the exposures are four minutes long (but it's common to spend 20-30 minutes on a single image, experimenting with different lighting techniques, or creating a stack of consecutive 4-minute exposures to create super-long star trails in post-production) there is a lot of time to wander off and explore and look for the next set up, or to just sit and contemplate the atmosphere of the site. I love this zen aspect of night shooting. It's very peaceful and contemplative.
If you’re totally hooked and want more, please visit his website at www.lostamerica.com
Or see him interviewed on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMQPY0Ll4ko&feature=player_embedded
