{"id":11445,"date":"2013-07-17T08:18:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-17T12:18:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/?p=11445"},"modified":"2013-07-17T08:18:43","modified_gmt":"2013-07-17T12:18:43","slug":"leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/","title":{"rendered":"Leave Room For The Viewer – The Story Behind The Photograph"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Condensation_PreludeinGrayIII_2001_425\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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

One second it was there and the next it wasn\u2019t and in a few seconds even the ripples it created were gone. It was there in this shot, but I took it out. What was it? I\u2019ll leave that to your imagination. It\u2019s more interesting that way. In moments like this our minds run wild. Our still childlike imagination takes over and plays. Stone? Fish? Bird? Snake? Squid? Sea monster? Mermaid? Diver? Now things are getting interesting! In the end, maybe this image really isn\u2019t one thing. Maybe it\u2019s become many. And maybe that\u2019s more interesting. I know what it was when I made the picture \u2013 and that\u2019s a limitation I\u2019ve had to challenge myself to overcome to see more in this picture. When people try to solve the mystery together the image becomes even more interesting, to both them and me. We all want to bring more to our creations \u2013\u00a0and we don\u2019t have to do all that work by ourselves. Part of that \u2018more\u2019 is what other people bring to it.
\nEverybody loves a mystery. Director J J Abrams\u2019 love of mysteries is evident in his many television shows and movies and his mastery of mysteries is evident by their widespread success. He knows some mysteries are best left unsolved. \u201cTo be continued\u201d \u2026 In his TED talk The Mystery Box<\/i> and he wisely states \u201cUltimately the mystery box is all of us.\u201d
\nHow many great inventions have been repurposed for uses than they were originally intended for? Gunpowder was first born as an elixir of immortality. The rat poison Warfarin became a blood thinner. A telephone conversation recorder became a musical record player. Viagra was invented to cure heart disease but had an unexpected side effect of making other things hard. And what can\u2019t you do with duct tape? The inventions that survived adapted. The ones that thrived left room for their users to bring about unexpected evolution. They grew stronger with user participation and innovation. You can\u2019t guarantee that this will occur but you can hope it will and you can leave room for it to happen both in your plans and your creations.
\nThere\u2019s always a balancing act between holding to your original course and modifying it after weighing viewers\u2019 responses. Consider putting your creations to the test with a select audience before releasing them to wider audiences. If you do, seek enough feedback from a variety of relevant sources and weigh it appropriately.
\nThere\u2019s a fine line between leaving too little room for the viewer (when what\u2019s produced is uni-dimensional and predictable) and leaving too much (when not enough is brought to the picture and what\u2019s created seems uncommitted). Find it and you\u2019ll find uncommon success and new opportunities for growth.
\nQuestions<\/i>
\nHow many ways can you leave room for user participation?<\/i>
\nHow many ways can you stimulate user participation?<\/i>
\nWhere is the line between too little room for the viewer and too much?<\/i>
\nHow much or how little does something need to resolve for it to be complete?<\/i>
\nWhen is it best to switch gears based on user feedback?<\/i>
\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 III, Rockland, Maine, 2001 One second it was there and the next it wasn\u2019t and in a few seconds even the ripples it created were gone. It was there in this shot, but I took it out. What was it? I\u2019ll leave that to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":11446,"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],"post_folder":[],"yoast_head":"\nLeave Room For The Viewer - The Story Behind The Photograph - 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\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Leave Room For The Viewer - The Story Behind The Photograph - John Paul Caponigro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Condensation III, Rockland, Maine, 2001 One second it was there and the next it wasn\u2019t and in a few seconds even the ripples it created were gone. It was there in this shot, but I took it out. What was it? I\u2019ll leave that to...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"John Paul Caponigro\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-17T12:18:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Condensation_PreludeinGrayIII_2001_425.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"311\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"johnpaulcaponigro\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Leave Room For The Viewer - The Story Behind The Photograph - John Paul Caponigro","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Leave Room For The Viewer - The Story Behind The Photograph - John Paul Caponigro","og_description":"Condensation III, Rockland, Maine, 2001 One second it was there and the next it wasn\u2019t and in a few seconds even the ripples it created were gone. It was there in this shot, but I took it out. What was it? I\u2019ll leave that to...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/","og_site_name":"John Paul Caponigro","article_published_time":"2013-07-17T12:18:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":425,"height":311,"url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Condensation_PreludeinGrayIII_2001_425.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"johnpaulcaponigro","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/","name":"John Paul Caponigro","description":"Illuminating Creativity","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Condensation_PreludeinGrayIII_2001_425.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Condensation_PreludeinGrayIII_2001_425.jpg","width":425,"height":311},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/","name":"Leave Room For The Viewer - The Story Behind The Photograph - John Paul Caponigro","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/#primaryimage"},"datePublished":"2013-07-17T12:18:43+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-17T12:18:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/858a1050968a36008905f1980aae47b0"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/11445\/leave-room-for-the-viewer-the-story-behind-the-photograph\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Leave Room For The Viewer – The Story Behind The Photograph"}]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/858a1050968a36008905f1980aae47b0","name":"johnpaulcaponigro","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/309d46e93fff33337943899d8f3269cf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/309d46e93fff33337943899d8f3269cf?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"johnpaulcaponigro"},"url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/author\/johnpaulcaponigro\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Condensation_PreludeinGrayIII_2001_425.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11445"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11445"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11445\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11446"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11445"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnpaulcaponigro.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_folder?post=11445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}