Born in Boston, Paul Caponigro (1932-2024) is known as one of America’s foremost landscape photographers. While he became interested in photography at age of thirteen, he also had a strong passion for music; he studied at Boston University College of Music in 1950 before deciding to focus on photography at the California School of Fine Art, where Ansel Adams had established one of the first photography programs in the United States. Despite the shift from music to photography early in his artistic career, Caponigro remained a dedicated piano player who believed that his musical training and insight influenced his photographic imagery.

Caponigro is best known for his interest in natural forms, landscapes, and still lives. His subjects include Stonehenge and other Celtic megaliths of England and Ireland; the temples, shrines and sacred gardens of Japan; and the deep mystical woodland of New England all of which culminated into over 20 photography books, as well as special limited edition art portfolios. He had his first solo exhibition at the George Eastman House in 1958 which launched his photographic career that included numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. Caponigro’s work is included in important collections including The Guggenheim, The Museum of Modern Art, The Whitney, Norton Simon Museum, New Mexico Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Getty, and countless others.

Throughout the 1960s he was a part-time teacher at Boston University while consulting on various technical research projects with the Polaroid Corporation. He has received two Guggenheim Fellowships and three National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grants. In recognition of a career spanning nearly seventy years and a sustained, significant contribution to the art of photography, Caponigro was awarded The Royal Photographic Society’s Centenary Medal and Honorary Fellowship in 2001 and in 2020 he was the Honoree for the Achievement in Fine Art presented by the Lucie Awards. Most recently in November 2024 Paul was inducted into the International Photography Hall of Fame.

Obscura Gallery worked directly with Paul to represent his photography and a majority of our inventory came directly from the artist during his lifetime.