Photography
Paul Caponigro, "Temple Hiei-San, Kyoto, Japan," 1976
- Item Number
- 17
Item Description
Paul Caponigro (American, b. 1932)
Temple Hiei-San, Kyoto, Japan, 1976
Gelatin silver print
Image: 16 x 20 inches
Signed and date on back in pencil
Acquired directly from the artist by the present owner
With a career spanning nearly sixty years, Paul Caponigro is internationally regarded as one of the greatest photographers of our time. Acclaimed for his spiritually moving images of Stonehenge and other Celtic megaliths of England and Ireland, Caponigro has also photographed the temples, shrines and sacred gardens of Japan.
His vision has roots in Paul Strand's response to the purity of forms, and in the metaphysical/metaphorical tradition of Minor White. But Caponigro primarily seeks inspiration in nature and natural forms. His printing reflects a heightened sensitivity toward gray and black tonalities. Indeed, his print quality is considered the best in the world.
Beyond the simple directness of his compositions and his attention to details, Caponigro's photographs invoke the promise of growth and regeneration.
About The Artist
Paul Caponigro 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 his 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 one of his two Guggenheim Fellowships which enabled him to travel to Ireland where began his lifelong interest photographing megalithic sites. In 1976 he made his classic photograph of running white deer titled, County Wicklow, Ireland.
Paul Caponigro has exhibited and taught throughout the United States and abroad. Caponigro’s images will be found in most history of photography texts and contemporary art museums.
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