Paul Cava began working with 19th and early 20th century photography in 1975. Between the years 1979-1998 Cava owned and directed the Paul Cava Galley in Philadelphia, hosting well over one hundred exhibitions of American and European artists and photographers. The gallery represented and exhibited artists such as Philip Guston, Julia Margaret Cameron, Francesco Clemente, Robert Morris, Jock Sturges, Sally Mann, Aaron Siskind, Robert Motherwell, Ray Metzker, Irving Penn, Joel-Peter Witkin, Wilhelm von Gloeden, Robert Mapplethorpe, Lynn Davis and Jacques-Henri Lartigue to name just a few.

Since 1998 Cava has been dealing privately in vintage and contemporary photography, publishing catalogues and original photographic portfolios and pursuing his own work as a fine artist.