Photographer Paul Caponigro is known for his images of objects in nature, which he presents in alluring black-and-white close-ups that reveal patterns and abstractions. Doll with Peacock Feathers, Boston, MA (1962) features an intriguing contrast between a man-made object and natural forms. The image is one of three photographs of dolls included in the exhibition Paul Caponigro: Polaroids 1960-1969, on view at Obscura Gallery (1405 Paseo de Peralta, 505-577-6708, obscuragallery.net) through Jan. 15.

Nearly subsumed by the distinctive feathers, the doll appears almost lifelike, as though she’s moving through a forest of vegetation. Caponigro shot it using Type 53 Polaroid film, which doesn’t yield a negative but a positive black-and-white print. The exhibition features one-of-a-kind prints made when he was working for the Polaroid Corporation.

“Paul’s tenure with the Polaroid Corporation in the 1960s parallels a time in the artist’s career where many of his most prolific images of nature were made,” says Obscura Director Jennifer Schlesinger. “What makes this image and the tenure with Polaroid so unique for Paul was that his creativity was thriving during this time because he was able to experiment with a vast amount of film and push his own boundaries as an artist, all while getting paid to do so for the very first time in his creative career.”

While abstraction is integral to much of his work, the subject matter is straightforward. Viewers need only glance at the title to know exactly what they’re looking at. Here, there’s no mistaking the doll or the feathers, but the image teases a narrative. In its softness and in the juxtaposition of its disparate elements is a dreamlike surreality, and in its tone, a mysterious sense of dark beauty.