REDDING WOODS RIVER, CONNECTICUT, 1970

"Freedom and discovery nourish my work:'

PAUL CAPONIGRO

59

A tone in a print has an impact, somewhat in the way the key

of C in music has a particular quality and character. Each tone
to me is like a sound and together they harmonize as in music.
When a deep black appears next to a specific grey, I'm affected
by the relationship. A print is another ground where I can
experience the emotional impact that a Chopin Etude or a
Brahms Symphony could have on me.
From an early age, music and nature sustained me. When I
was growing up in Revere, Massachusetts, I used to go
directly to the ocean after school to walk and collect stones and
listen to the waves. Then one day, on one of my walks, it
suddenly occurred to me to take a camera. At that time, about
1948, I had no awareness of the grand landscapes of Watkins,
Adams, and Weston. I was content to commune directly with
nature, and to be affected by her rhythms. Nature and music
flowed through me.
The business of structure and visual language played no
part in my photographic activity until several years later, when
I realized tliat the medium of photography was teaching me
just as nature had been teaching me. Simple, direct contact.
Photography became another landscape in itself, a separate
world to explore through the process of transforming nature
into a black and white print. By looking at nature, through the
photographic process, I discovered forms and dimensions in
the landscape I'd only vaguely sensed before.
Six years after I began photographing, while working in the
Yuma Desert, the purity of the light in the print became my
primary concern. I needed to command a technique to capture
the subtle activities of light. By unraveling Ansel Adams' zone
system, I found a way to understand and overcome technical
problems. The Zone system taught me the discipline to get
light to feel like light in a print. I preferred not to think of
tones as separate divisions of densities on a negative, but to
feel the relationships between them. My system simplified all
the numbers and ratios to allow me a more intuitive response .
. People think I control my tones and exposures, but that is
only partially true. At one point, I tried to create a zone
system for each of several fIlms which would fit a particular
quality of light or scene. But the variables were incessant. I
backed off and decided that, rather than mess with such a
fancy system, I could just as easily affect the scale of a given
flim by manipulating papers and developers. I learned a lot
about the scale of Tri-X and Plus X, which are relatively soft,
and Pan X, which has a long, smooth scale. Later, I used
Ilford FP-4. For a long time, I used Ansco Versapan.
The simpler I work, the less equipment and fewer figures I
carry around, the easier it is to get good pictures. That is, I
don't want to be tripping over technique and materials. I used
60

to carry around 2 dozen holders. Now I have the old Graflex

holders with 12 septums, for 12 sheets of film in one holder.
It's only an inch and a half thick, and with three holders, I
have enough film for a days shooting. When I flew to England
recently, the chap who picked me up asked where my
equipment was. All I had was a tripod, a small box and a
backpack with a few lenses, holders, meters, and miscellanea.
REDDING WOODS RIVER, 1970, was taken from a bridge
with a 5 x 7 camera. The elements I had selected to
photograph were already arranged in the landscape, and I
chose my lens to record them on fJlm as I saw them. Having
worked with a variety of lenses I quickly went to the one I
knew would do the job. I knew a 5 inch lens would give me
distortion. A 6 inch lens would still include too much on the
outer edges, and allow the trees to recede. A 10 inch lens
would narrow the frame to the center of the river, when I
wanted only the trees, water, and reflection. Automatically, I
pulled the 8 inch lens out of my bag because it brought the
trees forward and framed exactly what you see in the image.
This photograph was exposed in the last light of the day. In
low light levels, the meter reading must be adjusted to
compensate for reciprocity failure. I left my lens open longer
than indicated by the light meter.
The photograph of THE RUNNING DEER was made in
Ireland in 1967. It was an accident, or rather, a gift for my
willingness to deal with a low light situation. I'd heard about
this group of white deer on an estate and was intrigued by the
idea that they were white and in a herd. I called the owner and
he gave me permission to work on the grounds.
The deer were difficult to approach because they were
scattered and constantly moving. I asked the owner to corral
them at one end of a large field and, when I was ready, shoo
them in my direction.
I saw the stand of trees in the photograph and decided to set
up opposite them at the other end of the field. There, I'd be
out ofthe way and the deer wouldn't see me. I was so far away
that, to bring the trees back to me, I had to use a long lens.
My meter reading wouldn't allow me a fast enough shutter
speed to stop the deer in motion. When the owner corraled
enough deer, I said "ready," and he waved his hat. Sure
enough, they spread themselves out in the way they appear in
the photo. I was amazed they didn't clump up here and there.
When I processed the negative and saw the blur, I thought,
my God, this ghostly effect is more wonderful than the
sharper focus I'd hoped for. In the printing, I cropped part of
the trees and the foreground that were unnecessary. If the
picture works better cropped, I do it.
THE STONEHENGE photographs came about as a result of

61

my interest in the art and architecture of ancient man. I was

carried away by the mystery and power of the ancient stones.
I stopped shooting 4 x 5 when I went to Ireland in 1966.
The extra height and width of the 5 x 7 format resolved
certain problems I had when photographing stones. By using
the 6 inch Goertz wide angle Dagor, on a 5 x 7 camera, I
found the image proportions and shapes were relatively true to
the proportions in the landscape and the foreground
background relationship was maintained.
When I'm out in nature, I respond to emotional stimulus
which determines what and when I photograph. I can get
excited about a cloud moving over a group ofrocks and think,
this could make a beautiful arrangement, but I don't always
trust my thoughts of arranging or composing. When I
recognize a potential picture, I don't waste a second thinking
about the position ofobjects. Sometimes I literally guess
where the image will appear on the ground glass and shoot. I
work fast, thinking all the while. Who can guarantee us
anything for all the thinking and feeling? Who is such a total
master that he's going to get precisely what he expects? There
are too many variables in the overall process. If he does get
precisely what he expects, he deserves it. The ancient
Egyptian Imhotep said, "And no artist is ever master of his
craft." I think that's a good attitude to maintain.
For a sharp image, I develop my film in HC 110, diluted
1:31. It's a high accutance developer, which means it registers
fme lines on the flim clearly. Ansel used the old pyro formula,
and he could register an exquisite fmeness of detail. But later,
he found H C 110 was less erratic than the pyro and created a
similar effect. Years ago, I used D23, and it produced a
beautiful scale in a large format negative. But when the
negative was enlarged greatly, the resolution wasn't fme
enough. Ansel found D23's high sulfite content was eroding
the silver and softening the image sharpness.
HC 110 responds to the zone system expansion-contraction.
But there are few flims today that do it. Some years ago, I
could affect a decent range of control. I could expand the high
values to 4 and the toe would stay relatively constant. It might
build up a little density at the toe of the curve, but I could
expand the high values. Today, flim can't be pushed, perhaps
because there's not enough silver in it. If I go past plus 1 with
any given film, the whole toe starts to come up along with the
high values. If I go further than minus 1, the toe loses density.
Few flims are exhibiting a decent latitude these days.
Printing papers today are like one way streets. They lack the
latitude which enables contrast manipulation with one paper
grade. Ten years ago, I did the majority of my work on
Medallist and Ansco grade #2. In the last six years, to get my
62

negatives to work as well in print, I've had to use a few

different grades of six separate brands of paper. If I want a
certain feeling, I look for a particular paper and mess with
several developers to get that little something extra.
For paper developers, I use Ilford Bromofen when I want a
neutral color. Instead of Dektol, I use a lot ofArdol, an old
Ansco formula with a lovely warm tone. They've discontinued
the formula but I've got a few cases left and will later mix it
I use any and all printing controls to get a good print.
Primarily, I work intuitively. Previsualization is too binding. I
don't want to hold to a set idea.
When I've got a negative solved, I usually make twice as
many prints as I need. If I want three, I make six. One will get
broken washing, another will perhaps be mishandled by my
assistant or myself, still another might be screwed up in the
mounting press or in spotting. Much physical handling invites
damage, no matter how careful you are.
Long before East Street announced the desirability, I used 2
hypos. If I know I'm going to use the hypo in a certain period
of time, I mix five gallons of F6 hypo, and fix my prints four
minutes in each vat. Years ago I read in a commercial photo
magazine that two vats should be used because, once you've
had a certain number of prints through the first vat, the hypo
picks up compounds from the acetic acid and the developer.
A second fresh hypo removes the compounds that otherwise
build up in the hypo solution. I don't know chemistry well
enough to check it out, but it sounds logical and I've been
working that way for many years.
My prints are toned a specific time, long or short, to keep
the print color subtle or definite. Many people selenium tone
for three minutes, but I have found that three minutes can at
times be too long or too short for the specific effects I am
seeking. A long toning can sometimes destroy the soft
atmosphere I might put in a print. I work with several
developers to find a color that will be in harmony with the
effect I wish to project through the print. I want all aspects,
print color, scale contrast, and even size to work together. In
some cases, if I can't get the separation I need in low values of
the print through other means, I tone for two minutes or
longer in selenium. It adds density to the blacks. I compensate
for the contrast from toning, by careful printing and developing.
I strive to have a facile technique because only when I am
free of concern over technique and least conscious of technical
problems do dreamlike images emerge. Discovery is essential
to my photography. But only when you've done your
homework, and your materials are functioning for you, can
you put them into the service of what inspires you. My
concern has most often been to use the camera to try and
63

express the quiet forces moving in nature, to make visible the

constant flow, to fmd the subtle dimension of the "landscape
behind the landscape." My inspiration doesn't always come
from previous work, but more from the relationship between
what's in me at the moment and what's out there. My
problem is to remain as free as possible from what I've done
in the past, in order to truly get hold ofwhat is affecting
me in the present. When an image registers on the ground
glass, it's as much me and my attitude as nature's presentation.
I continue to grow by asking myself; am I really free, am I
really seeing? I might work for days even though there is
nothing happening. It's easy, I'm bored, I don't know what
else to do so I might borrow from old work. The point is to
keep working because I never know when a change will come,
when I will move out of the old vantage point, and tune in to
the subtletY that's flickering out there. Freedom and discovery
nourish my work.
Each person who approaches a work of art will apprehend it
in a different way. Rather than impose my feelings and
interpretations, I let the viewer appreciate it and bring to it his
or her own experiences. For example, the ratio of light to dark
in each photograph creates a different effect in each viewer.
The light and dark shapes in SLIGO WATERFALL, as opposed
to Redding Woods River or Running Deer, stimulates a
different reaction. When I'm photographing, I don't think
about the proportions of light and darkness. The quantities
and qualities are quietly "felt" by me and my hands and eyes .
organize the image into existence on the ground glass.
COPYRIGHT PAUL CAPONIGRO

64