Caponigro, Paul. The Wise Silence. Photographs by Paul Caponigro. Essay by Marianne Fulton.

Boston: NYGS/Little Brown in association with the International Museum of Photography at George Eastman House, 1983. 1st Edition. 143 images sequenced by Eleanor Morris Caponigro and printed in duotone of the highest quality. Fine with VG price clipped dust jacket. Summary:

Published in 1983 by the New York Graphic Society in association with the George Eastman House (International Museum of Photography), The Wise Silence: Photographs by Paul Caponigro is a landmark 204-page retrospective monograph celebrating the photographer's thirty-year career. Featuring an introductory essay by curator Marianne Fulton and a sequence of 143 duotone plates arranged by the artist's wife, Eleanor Morris Caponigro, the volume serves as an expansive survey of Caponigro’s spiritual and poetic engagement with the natural world. The collection brings together works spanning New England landscapes, Western rock formations, Japanese gardens, and the ancient stone megaliths of Ireland and Britain. Rather than serving as direct documentary records, the images emphasize subtle tonal harmonies, organic textures, and quiet geometries, highlighting Caponigro's lifelong pursuit of the unseen, mystical forces residing within physical space.

Paul Caponigro (1932–2024) was an American landscape and still-life photographer renowned for capturing the spiritual and mystical qualities of natural forms, ancient architecture, and sacred landscapes. Born in Boston, he initially studied piano at the Boston University College of Music before turning his focus to photography. He studied under Minor White and drew deep inspiration from West Coast masters like Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. Over a career spanning seven decades, Caponigro became celebrated for his master prints and contemplative studies of stone monuments—including Celtic megaliths in Ireland and England, temples in Japan, and the woodlands of New England. A recipient of two Guggenheim Fellowships and three National Endowment for the Arts grants, his work has been widely published, exhibited internationally, and collected by major institutions including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art.