“Being a photographer primarily involves being an observer, and on one particular day, while sipping coffee at the kitchen table, I noticed that the glass door leading out to the porch carried a patina of etched shapes upon it. It was wintertime and the cold of the outdoors meeting the warmth of the kitchen had left shapes like snowflakes and broader patches of frost across the entire pane of glass. The observer in me saw the potential for a picture and so I brought my view camera into the kitchen and played with the image on my ground glass until I created a good composition that exposed the uniqueness of the frost and winter’s handiwork. I focused on the plane carrying the frost and this selective focusing caused any objects behind the frosted glass to be seen as soft -edged and out of focus. A bright light falling on some objects on the porch appeared as a soft cloud in the midst of the frost pattern. In the final print from the negative, I was pleased with the coming together of shapes and tones that created a nebulous space in which mystery and beauty hovered together"
~ Paul Caponigro
Paul can conjure up a vivid story of a magical winterland and transport us there in an instant. He doesn’t need any complicated time travel mechanisms. He just opens his eyes and we are there.
