Holy crap. That’s all I can say to myself, over and over, as I flip through Troy Paiva’s unbelievable Lost America photo collection. Paiva is a light painting bad ass who’s been traveling dusty, forgotten back roads across the US since 1989. His phenomenal works span decades and most of the country, illuminating dessicated locales and ruined technology in a brilliant rainbow of eerie hues. If you’re a fan of urban exploration, post apocalyptic landscapes, or innovative long exposure photography, Paiva’s created a Lost America that you’ll find fascinating.
Lost America – Neon Light Painting Still Can’t Cheer This Shit Up
The most incredible thing about these shots is they’re all taken in complete darkness, with only the light of a full moon (or near enough) to light scenes. The colours and extra lighting effects he paints in during minutes-long exposures with hand held lights. Since he has to sneak in to a lot of these locations to get the shots he wants, I’m starting to imagine him as some raver werewolf, scaling fences and swinging around glow sticks. A lot of these photos give me the chills, and I’ve picked my favorites for you to peruse, but you really have to check out his site for the full experience. I had a lot of difficulty keeping this at a reasonable amount of images, and I have to admit, I tend towards the creepy versus the bright and cheerful ones. Even reading the circumstances and anecdotes when each was photographed, it’s hard to imagine these shots as being taken in the black of night. Enjoy, and don’t do like I did and imagine weather worn corpses just out of sight in each image.
