Paul Caponigro

Paul Caponigro is regarded as one of the greatest photographers of our time. Born in Boston in 1932, he was already working as a photographer when he first traveled to the western United States in 1953 as a soldier during the Korean War. In the early 1950s, during an army tour of duty in San Francisco, he met and studied with teachers and students of the West Coast School of Photography including Minor White. During these years his photographs appeared in Aperture magazine and were exhibited at the George Eastman House.

In 1966, Caponigro was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship which enabled him to travel to Ireland where began his lifelong interest photographing megalithic sites like Stonehenge. In 1976, he made his classic photograph of running white deer in County Wicklow, Ireland.

Caponigro has devoted his life to exploring the natural world and architecture from antiquity. His vision has its roots in Paul Strand’s response to the purity of forms and in the metaphysical/metaphorical tradition of Minor White. His printing reflects a heightened sensitivity toward gray and black tonalities and is considered the best in the world.

Beyond the directness of his compositions and attention to detail, Caponigro’s photographs convey deeper meanings. Whether the subject is a landscape, a solitary apple, a ring of standing stones, or a simple piece of aluminum foil, his pictures evoke the promise of growth and regeneration mingled with timelessness.

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