The St. Louis artist is best known to the public for his "Falling Man" theme (F/M) which gained him national and international prominence. Most typically, an armless nude figure of indeterminate sex stands in a relaxed position, a bit sway-backed with stomach forward. Except for an indication of a nose, the face is essentially featureless. More often than not, the figure is of a highly polished metal and reflects the environment in which it is situated. Those situations vary greatly from sculpture to sculpture and from painting to painting.

Many critics have seen the Falling Man as a symbol of man as adversary confronting a scientific, technological, brave new world, while others have seen Trova's figure merely as an attempt to create a systematic ideal of human proportions.

In this piece the stationary figure reaches out into its environment, not through striding forward, but through its long and expanding shadow. In F/M Shadow the narrow, immobile figure is conrtasted with its moving, broadening, shadow counterpart.

Source: Bulletin, September-October, 1981.