This past week I received John Sexton’s always informative and entertaining newsletter. Perusing it, I was saddened to read the sad news of Paul Caponigro’s passing on November 10th in a very touching remembrance John wrote. Caponigro was truly a photographic giant and he will be sorely missed! If you are not familiar with his incredible work, your photographic life is incomplete!
I have seen Paul’s work many times, own several of his books and was fortunate enough to meet him once by chance while traveling abroad. One of my life’s sorrows was having the chance to buy one of his famous images, Reflecting Stream, Redding, Connecticut when I was young, but not having the funds to do it. I still think about that missed opportunity! On the other hand, I do own a copy of Fred Picker’s The Iceland Portfolio that Paul once owned himself … a small consolation I suppose.
If you search this site you will see that Paul’s name comes up a number of times, but notably in discussing one of the most important books I own, The Wise Silence: Photographs by Paul Caponigro. Here is what I wrote about it and my unexpected and surprising encounter with him:
“Paul Caponigro, The Wise Silence: Photographs by Paul Caponigro
Whenever I traveled overseas I always tried to find some time to visit museums … and of course photograph if possible. I think it was about 1984 or so. I was in London on business with the State Department and had some time to kill during an evening. As usual I would ask around or look at local artsy publications usually found in hotel lobbies. So I was skimming through one of them in my room and what do you know … Paul Caponigro was going to be giving a lecture that night at the Barbican Centre, not far from where I was staying! So much for dinner, I had an hour to get there! As I recall, Caponigro was speaking courtesy of a US Government sponsored tour. Perfect … I worked for the US Government!
You can imagine how excited I was as I scurried to get there and then get seated before the lecture began. Let’s face it Caponigro is one of the great 20th century masters. Black and white, large format, iconic landscapes, architecture, flowers, still life. I had seen his pictures in magazines but had never seen them in the flesh. And of course I never had met the master himself! He finally emerged and the slide projector began projecting images on the screen. Oh no! Caponigro was showing color photographs made with a Leica M6! Not what I hoped to see and not what I hoped to hear about! Nevertheless, I still got a chance to hear Caponigro discuss his work and it was an unexpected opportunity to meet a truly inspirational photographer. No matter … it bothered me for a long time that I didn’t get to hear Caponigro talk about his incredible black and white large format pictures made at Stonehenge, Ireland, Maine, Yuma, Arizona or in Redding, Connecticut. And the list goes on.
Somehow though, I found the will to go on.
Then about twenty years later a very good friend of mine, who also happens to be a fine photographer, gave me a most wonderful gift for my fiftieth birthday … a beautiful first edition copy of The Wise Silence: Photographs by Paul Caponigro! Now we were talking! The incredible retrospective of Caponigro’s work up until the early Eighties was published to go along with the 1983 exhibition, The Wise Silence: Photographs by Paul Caponigro shown at the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, Rochester, New York.
Suffice to say, all the classics are in this incredibly beautiful book! The great images we know about, but many others as well. A beautiful leaf suspended in space, the white dear, churches, sunflowers, beautiful streams, ancient stone monuments, ice and snow, the American Southwest, architectural details, doorways and more! Over a hundred and forty stunning photographs in a large exquisite book you will want to look at again and again … serene, quiet and beautiful.
No disrespect to Caponigro’s 35mm color work, but what is contained in this book is truly special! The book is not cheap, but would make a worthy addition to anyone’s photographic library.”
My chance to meet Paul Caponigro and hear him speak will always remain a fond memory for me. And I will always have The Wise Silence to gaze at and remind me about just how much is possible in this wonderful artform known as photography.
Stay well,
Michael