Frosted Window, Revere, MA

Artist Paul Caponigro (American, born 1932)

Date1957 (printed later)

MediumGelatin-silver print.

ClassificationPhotographs

Credit LineGift of Margaret and Howard Bond

Object number

2006.34

Not on View

Label TextWhen he was young, Paul Caponigro, disinterested in school, was fond of exploring Revere Beach northeast of Boston. In an interview given at the Smithsonian in 1999, Caponigro recalled a time when he was twelve: “I remember coming back from being in nature… passing right through the school yard where I was going to school…. And I stopped dead with the realization: I had to get a camera and photograph this stuff I had seen out there in nature.” Caponigro’s dislike for academics was offset by his natural abilities in music and art. Fascinated by his piano-playing uncle, he developed a special fondness for the instrument. He began studies at Boston University in music until drafted into the army. He was stationed in San Francisco as a photographer for two years. Serious study of photography began after his discharge from the military. He went on to work with Minor White in Rochester, New York, and to teach photography at Boston University. In this stunning image, produced during his time in Rochester, light is refracted through a frost-covered window.Exhibition HistoryToledo Museum of Art, Refraction/Reflection, April 20-September 2, 2012.