2021 Lucie Awards Honoree: PAUL CAPONIGRO / Achievement In Fine Art
Born in Boston inn 1932, Paul Caponigro is renowned as one of America’s most significant photographers. When he was thirteen, he began to explore the world around him with his camera and has subsequently sustained a career spanning seven decades.
His first solo exhibition opened at the George Eastman House in 1958 and his reputation for uncompromising skill with the large-format camera was established. Caponigro was a student of Minor White (1908-1976) and a young contemporary of West Coast photographers Ansel Adams (1902-1984) and Brett Weston (1911-1993).
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 and inspires viewers with glimpses of the mystical woodland of his native New England, Caponigro approaches nature receptively, preferring to utilize an intuitive focus rather than merely arranging or recording forms and surface details. His lasting contribution to photography is not limited to beauty of his compositions or masterful printing, but more importantly his unparalleled ability to engage the viewer in the mystical presence concealed in nature.
Music has always been an essential aspect of his life. Although he shifted from the piano to photography early in his artistic career, he remains a dedicated pianist and believes his musical training and insight contributes significantly to his photographic imagery. In his photographs the visual ‘silence’ becomes as tangible as ‘sound’.
Paul Caponigro has exhibited and taught throughout the United States and abroad, and has been awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships and three National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants. In 2001, he received the Centenary Medal from the Royal Photographic Society in recognition of his significant contribution to the art of photography. Caponigro’s images are included in most history of photography texts and numerous museum collections, including Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum , Washington DC, the Art Institute of Chicago and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.