“It’s one thing to make a picture of what a person looks like, it’s another thing to make a portrait of who they are.” – Paul Caponigro

Paul Caponigro began his interest in photography at thirteen at the same time he was enthralled with music. He studied at the Boston University College of Music. He then decided, in 1950 to concentrate on photography attending the California School of Fine Art in a program established by Ansel Adams. His first solo exhibition was held at the George Eastman House in 1958. Since then he has had exhibits at throughout the US and overseas. He was awarded two Guggenheim Fellowships along with three NEA (National Endowment for the Arts) grants.

Paul Caponigro self-portraitDuring the sixties, he taught part-time at Boston University and consulted with Polaroid Corporation on some of its research while continuing to pursue photography and music.

Paul Caponigro received the Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship in 2001. This award recognizes his sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography over a career of more than seventy years.

Paul loves nature making photographs of landscapes and other natural forms. He is known for his images of Stonehenge and other Celtic structures in England and Ireland. He has also made photographs of Japanese shrines, gardens, and temples and continues his work photographing in the deep, magical woods of New England.

Perhaps one of his best-known photographs is “Running White Deer, County Wicklow, Ireland” shown in the opening gallery along with work from Stonehenge, Ireland, and New England. The window is in the Olsen House in Cushing, Maine. It is the home in the background of Andrew Wyeth’s painting “Christina’s World”.

Paul lives in Cushing, Maine near his son photographer John Paul Caponigro

Read more mini-biographies of influential photographers on Photofocus.