Originally from Long Island, Mr. Traynor has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions and is the recipient of several prestigious awards including “Industrial Photographer of the Year” at the 1st International Photography Awards. Mr. Traynor’s work has also been featured in art fairs across the globe and in a variety of publications such as URB, cool’eh, and Remix. His photographs reside in some of the top private, public and corporate collections.

Mr. Traynor showcases Cold Soldiers. The images from Russia’s urban centers focus on playgrounds and their immediate surroundings. The works are eerily devoid of human presence. Color and textures are heightened so that the peeling paint on the broken basketball hoop is almost three-dimensional and palpable. The overall sense is of a nostalgic longing for light-hearted childhood play that remains distant, unattainable and haunted when viewed through the camera’s lens. And yet, while a sense of destitution is prevalent, there is a magical innocence in the cropped compositions and juxtaposition of the rich colors of slides, swings, and gates. The series is a look at universal images of childhood and objects of elation, given specific relevance of time and geographical location. The photographs expose stories of abandoned apparatuses and barren trees that were at one time enjoyed by laughing children, giving them life and yet be! Bending and warping as if tired from many years of fleeting use – they are only hibernating, waiting for spring to once again bring life and companionship.