Photographer Troy Paiva grew up “obsessed” with planes. The son of a flight engineer, he spent his childhood wrapped in aviation books and surrounded by model aircraft.
"It's part of my makeup", the 58-year-old said during a telephone interview with CNN from his home in Silicon Valley. “It's how I was raised.”
Given his longtime interest in abandoned spaces, it's no wonder Paiva ended up in the strange "graveyards" of the Mojave Desert. For over a decade, he toured venues across California.
While he often operates with permission from site owners, the photographer also its to working in secret – usually under the cover of darkness at night – to obtain his photos.
The resulting images show commercial and military aircraft, from B-52s to Boeing 747s, in various states of decay. The gallery below even shows a Constellation fuselage.
Some planes were completely destroyed, and reveal the complex electronics and engineering of the aeronautical branch.
Still others contain interior features familiar to most engers – padded seats and curtain dividers eroded by desert conditions.
The photos are a combination of creativity, tripod, long exposure and high ISO, resulting in impressive colors, amid twisted metals.
With her camera on a tripod, Paiva builds these impressive layers of color with strobe lights, LED flashlights and other portable lighting devices. With exposure often stretching out in minutes rather than seconds, it's still able to get into the frame to lighten certain sections of the image without showing up in the final shot.
About 150 of the images will be in his forthcoming book, “Boneyard: SoCal's Aircraft Graveyards at Night”.
“I think humans are fascinated with their own mortality“, said Paiva by way of explanation, while stating that his book should be more “playful” than macabre.
Via - CNN
Pictures of - Troy Paiva
