{"id":11082,"date":"2013-05-14T08:18:09","date_gmt":"2013-05-14T12:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/?p=11082"},"modified":"2013-05-14T08:18:09","modified_gmt":"2013-05-14T12:18:09","slug":"less-is-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11082\/less-is-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Less Is More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Condensation II, Rockland, Maine, 2001<\/a><\/p>\n

Were it not for the massive stones of the breakwater that cuts into the ocean for fully one mile before ending at a lighthouse that guards the entrance to the harbor of Rockland, Maine, you\u2019d feel like you were walking on water as you make your way across it. At sunrise and sunset, you\u2019re surrounded on all sides by aqueous color, unless there\u2019s fog and then you can hardly see. Then, as you walk the stones out into the sea, there comes a point when you can\u2019t see where you\u2019ve come from or where you\u2019re going to. It\u2019s disorienting \u2013 and magical. You could be anywhere. You could be nowhere. You could end up in either place.
\nSometimes the less you can see, the more interesting it becomes. Then, imagination takes over. It\u2019s clinically proven that when people are subjected to minimal sensory input (such as floating in an isolation chamber) for long periods of time, they begin hallucinating \u2013 the inside comes out. Creatives often ask how they can leave room for the viewer, encouraging interactivity and participation, rather than spelling it all out, breeding passivity and detachment, knowing that doing so often creates more powerful and personal experiences for them. There is such a thing as \u2018too much\u2019. You want to give people enough to enchant them, but not enough to dispel the magic. This leads to the question, \u201cHow much room can you leave for the viewer without losing your message?\u201d
\nSimplicity works for so many reasons. With fewer elements in play attention is concentrated on what remains. There\u2019s more is riding on what\u2019s left. There are no distractions. Ordinarily, this leaves fewer doubts as to what to focus on. Here, in this image, as there is only vapor and water and the suggestion of a horizon, what is taken for granted and often goes unseen comes forward \u2013 light and how it fills the air. Strip things down far enough and you can see what ordinarily is invisible.
\nThis image takes my impulse to strip things down to their essentials to its extreme. It presents an experience of space and light, simultaneously empty and full, that is profoundly simple but not simplistic. It asks more questions than it answers. It takes questions like, \u201cHow much can you do with how little?\u201d and \u201cHow distilled can you make an experience?\u201d and goes further to \u201cHow little does it take to make a representational image?\u201d and \u201cWhat are the foundations for our understanding of reality?\u201d A chain reaction is started and more questions arise.
\nIn so many ways, not just because of the frames they put on the world, images are always leaving things out. They work best when they do this with purpose. They work best when they leave only the essentials and leave out the rest. Sometimes, more can be said with less. Sometimes some things can only be said with less.
\nQuestions <\/em>
\n\u00a0<\/em>When is more less?<\/em>
\nWhen is less more?<\/em>
\nHow can you do the most with the least?<\/em>
\nWhen does simple become simplistic?<\/em>
\nFind out more about this image here.<\/a>
\nView more related images here.<\/a>
\nRead more The Stories Behind The Images here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Condensation II, Rockland, Maine, 2001 Were it not for the massive stones of the breakwater that cuts into the ocean for fully one mile before ending at a lighthouse that guards the entrance to the harbor of Rockland, Maine, you\u2019d feel like you were walking…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11083,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[61],"tags":[1823,1833,3158],"post_folder":[],"yoast_head":"\nLess Is More - John Paul Caponigro<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11082\/less-is-more\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Less Is More - 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