Skip to main content Smithsonian Institution

Catalog Data

Interviewee:
Caponigro, Paul, 1932-  Search this
Interviewer:
Larsen, Susan C.  Search this
Names:
Adams, Ansel, 1902-1984  Search this
Bufano, Beniamino, 1898-1970  Search this
Bunnell, Peter C.  Search this
Chappell, Walter, 1925-  Search this
Chiarenza, Carl  Search this
Clergue, Lucien.  Search this
Clift, William  Search this
Cosindas, Marie, 1925-  Search this
Cunningham, Imogen, 1883-1976  Search this
Graves, Morris, 1910-2001  Search this
Lange, Dorothea  Search this
Newhall, Beaumont, 1908-1993  Search this
O'Keeffe, Georgia, 1887-1986  Search this
Ranney, Edward.  Search this
Russek, Janet  Search this
Scheinbaum, David, 1951-  Search this
Singer, Robert T.  Search this
Strand, Paul, 1890-1976  Search this
Szarkowski, John  Search this
Tice, George A.  Search this
Uelsmann, Jerry, 1934-  Search this
Westin, Bert  Search this
White, Minor  Search this
Extent:
87 Pages (Transcript)
Type:
Collection descriptions
Archival materials
Pages
Sound recordings
Interviews
Date:
1999 July 30-August 12
Scope and Contents:
An interview of Paul Caponigro conducted 1999 July 30-August 12, by Susan C. Larsen, for the Archives of American Art, at Caponigro's home, in Cushing, Maine.
Caponigro describes his childhood, military career, and travels through the southwest and northern California, his association with Minor White, exhibitions, publications, employment, and marriage to wife Eleanor.
Caponigro discusses the significance of his Stonehenge series of photographs; others' interpretations of his work; further exhibitions; and the role that his family's move to Santa Fe, New Mexico, has played in the evolution of his work.
Further discussion of the photographic scene in Santa Fe and its connection to American modernist photographers such as Paul Strand and Ansel Adams; travels; Guggenheim grant; the 1991 fall from a rocky ledge that was a physical and spiritual watershed in his life; and his new home in Cushing, Maine.
He recalls George Tice, Ansel Adams, Minor White, Bert Westin, Imogen Cunningham, Dorothea Lange, Oliver Gagliani, Beniamino Bufano, Morris Graves, Walter Chappell, Jerry Uelsmann, Carl Chiarenza, William Clift, Marie Cosindas, Peter Bunnell, John Szarkowski, Robert Singer, Beaumont Newhall, Georgia O'Keeffe, Ed Ranney, David Scheinbaum, Janet Russek, Lucien Clergue, and many others.
Biographical / Historical:
Paul Caponigro (1932- ) is a photographer and teacher from New England and New Mexico.
General:
Originally recorded on 7 sound cassettes. Reformatted in 2010 as 12 digital wav files. Duration is 5 hr., 19 min.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives of American Art Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and administrators.
Topic:
Photography, Artistic  Search this
Photographers -- Maine -- Cushing -- Interviews.  Search this
Photographers -- New Mexico -- Santa Fe -- Interviews.  Search this
Genre/Form:
Sound recordings
Interviews
Identifier:
AAA.caponi99
Archival Repository:
Archives of American Art
GUID:
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/mw9d88bbc52-0ddb-4303-89ec-78837871bb24
EDAN-URL:
ead_collection:sova-aaa-caponi99