Paul Caponigro Photos
In the essence of his work, Paul Caponigro belongs to a long-standing strand of American photography practiced by figures such as nineteenth-century landscape master Carleton E. Watkins, Edward Weston, Laura Gilpin, and William Clift (1944-), who have been drawn, almost mystically, to the power of the natural landscape. Caponigro's subjects are the landscape and still life in all of their manifestations—from close-ups of a sunflower or an apple to a Connecticut rock wall, or light simply reflected in the water, or the megalithic stone monuments of Northern Europe such as Stonehenge, Avebury, and Carnac. Caponigro has also famously captured sublime and enigmatic running white deer, the gardens and temples of Japan, the Arch of Reefert Church, Glendalough, Ireland, the consecrated places of the American Indian in the West, and the great buttes of Utah and New Mexico. At the root of Caponigro's photography is his concern for man's history and awareness of what forces lie around him. In his best work, he reveals nature's delicate balance through simplified forms and formations that have been skillfully observed and meticulously printed. The power of observation and a deft control of his craft have been key elements to Caponigro's contribution to the modern definition of the language of photography.
Paul Caponigro's sensitivity to place and his understanding of the quality of light and how it affects place have enabled him to produce images that are simultaneously remarkably quiet and powerfully resonant. This distinctive strength arises from his masterful darkroom technique in which he is willing to allow each negative to dictate the specific process by which it will be developed and on which papers it will be printed.
Caponigro typically tones his prints so that they contain a subtle but rich gradation of tone so that he might capture ''the elusive image of nature's subtle realms.''
Paul Caponigro also writes passionately about photography and his work:
...of all my photographs the ones that have the most meaning for me are those I was moved to make from a certain vantage point, at a certain moment and no other, and for which I did not draw on my abilities to fabricate a picture, composition-wise or otherwise. You might say that I was taken in. Who or what takes one to a vantage point or moves one at a certain moment is a mystery to me. I have always felt that after such experiences that there was more than myself involved. It is not chance. It happens often.
(Paul Caponigro, a monograph 1971)
Early and enduring influences on Caponigro were the lives, vision, and work of Ansel Adams, Edward Weston, Minor White, and Northwest Coast painter Morris Graves. Ansel Adams' sharply focused and highly skilled craftsmanship set a standard for Caponigro to emulate; Minor White's psychological and spiritual approach to photography informed his life-long concern with the mystical and spiritual dimensions of landscape and still life photography, a viewpoint that was very influential on others of Caponigro's generation as well. Early on in his career, Caponigro visited an exhibition by Morris Graves in San Francisco. Graves' paintings of symbolic animals and ritual objects presented a mythical dimension connected to nature yet parallel and apart from it. These paintings influenced by Eastern brush painting and Native American art were a catalyst for Caponigro. Capo-nigro creates pictures that are immediate; however, he is constantly engaged in the effort to reveal something other—something that is not immediately visible, tangible, or legible. He has conducted a survey of the material world, conducted, over a lifetime, with such metaphysical fidelity that it transcends the need for explanation.
Diana Edkins
Biography
Born in Boston, Massachusetts, December 7, 1932. Studied piano, College of Music, Boston University, 1950-1951. Drafted into the army and served as a photographer from 1953-1955; stationed in San Francisco, where he became acquainted with the West Coast photographers Ansel Adams and Minor White. Apprenticed in a commercial photographic concern, 1952. Studied with Benjamin Chin and Alfred W. Richter in San Francisco, 1956, and with Minor White at Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York in 1957-1958. First solo exhibition, George Eastman House in Rochester, New York in 1958. Assisted Minor White with summer photographic workshops, 1959. Instructor and lecturer in photography at colleges and other centers in the
United States from 1960 until the present. Helped found the Association of Heliographers and their Gallery Archive in New York, 1963. Married Eleanor Morris in 1964. Two Guggenheim Fellowships, in the British Isles in 1966 and Japan in 1975. Exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1968. National Endowment for the Arts Photography Fellowship in 1975 and 1982. Moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1973. Arts Council of Great Britain Grant, 1978; Peer Award, Friends of Photography, Carmel, California, 1983; Annual Governor's Award, New Mexico, 1984. Moved to Maine in the early 1990s and has taught extensively throughout the United States at universities and workshops.
Selected Exhibitions
1985 Paul Caponigro; Cincinnati Art Museum; Cincinnati, Ohio
Le Forme della Natura; Fondazione Italiana per la Fotografia; Torino, Italia
1987 The Implicit Image; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; San Francisco
Facets of Modernism; San Francisco Museum of Art; San Francisco
Paul Caponigro; National Museum of Modern Art; Kyoto, Japan
Paul Caponigro; Museum of Fine Art, Museum of New Mexico; Santa Fe
Legacy of Light; Polaroid Corporation; Cambridge, Massachusetts
Photography and Art; Los Angeles County Museum of Art
1988 Paul Caponigro; Museum of Contemporary Photography; Columbia College, Chicago Illinois
Photography Speaks; Chrysler Museum; Norfolk, Virginia
Megaliths; Spencer Museum of Art; University of Kansas, Lawrence
Master Photographs from ''Photography in the Fine Arts'' Exhibitions from 1959-1987; International Center of Photography; New York
Paul Caponigro; Shoto Museum of Art; Tokyo
1995 Canyonland Visions; Amon Carter Museum; Fort Worth, Texas
1996 Meditations in Light; The Farnsworth Art Museum; Rockland, Maine and traveling
1998 Meditations in Light; Art Museum of Southeast Texas, Beaumont, Texas
2002 New England Days; Portland Museum of Art, Portland, Oregon
2003 Le Forme della Natura; Galleria Civica di Modena; Italia
Le Forme della Natura; Fandazione Italiana per la Fotografia; Torino, Italia
Monographs
Paul Caponigro: Le Forme della Natura. Italy: Nepente, 2003.
New England Days: Photographs by Paul Caponigro. Portland, Maine: The Portland Museum of Art, 2002.
Paul Caponigro: Meditation in Light. Rockland, ME: The Morris Press, 1996.
Paul Caponigro: The Voice of the Print. Portland, ME: Muse Press, 1994.
Paul Caponigro: Masterworks From Forty Years. Carmel, CA: Photography West Graphics, Inc., 1993.
Paul Caponigro: Seasons. New York: New York Graphic Society, 1988.
Paul Caponigro: Megaliths. New York: Little Brown and Company, 1986.
Paul Caponigro: Photography: 25 Years. Introduction by Peter C. Bunnell. Edited By D.W. Mellor. Exhibition catalog for the Photography Gallery, Philadelphia, Pa. and The Weston Gallery, Carmel, CA, 1981.
Paul Caponigro. Landscape. New York: McGraw Hill, 1975.
Sunflower. New York, 1974.
Paul Caponigro. Millerton, New York: Aperature, 1967, revised edition 1972.
The Music of Willem Nyland. New York, 1963, 1964.
Further Reading
Brown, Bruce. Photographing Maine:1840-2000. Rockport: Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Maine Coasts Artists, 2000.
Bunnell, Peter C. Photography at Princeton: Celebrating Twenty-Five Years of Collections and Teaching the History of Photography. Princeton: The Art Museum, Princeton University, 1998.
Caponigro, Paul. Millerton, New York: Aperture, Inc., 1972.
Fulton, Marianne. The Wise Silence: Photography by Paul Caponigro. New York: New York Graphic Society Books and Boston: Little Brown and Company, 1983.
Hawkins, Gerald S. Stonehenge Decoded. New York: Dell Publishing Company, 1965.
Hill, Paul, and Thomas Cooper. Dialogue with Photography. London and New York: 1979.
Szarkowski, John. Mirrors and Windows: American Photography since 1960. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1978.
Szarkowski, John. Photographie Nouvelle des Etats-Unis. Paris, 1969.
Szarkowski, John. The Photographer's Eye. New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1966.
Szarkowski, John. The Photographer and the American Landscape. New York: Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1963.
Witkin, Lee D., and Barbara London. The Photograph Collector's Guide. Boston: New York Graphic Society, 1979.
Paul Caponigro, Cloud, San Sebastian, New Mexico, 1982, printed later, Gelatin silver print. [© Paul Caponigro. Courtesy of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University Art Museums, Anonymous loan in honor of Carl Chiarenza. Allan Macintyre. © 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College]
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