composition - How to show the theme "What happened??"

I wanted to show the theme "What happened??" here. I showed this to some non-photographers, they couldn't make out anything out of this.

What can I do here to improve the composition?

Answer

I probably fall into the ‘non-photographer’ category you’ve mentioned, as I primarily use photography to capture the moment (rather than create compositional art which is what you’re attempting). I have little to no art / compositional background so feel free to ignore / down vote if you disagree with what follows 

My initial impression on seeing the image was that it looked quite sterile and composed. There’s nothing wrong with composed pictures but it didn’t suggest a story to me (and possibly because of my lack of art background I didn’t try to seek one out).

Why do I see a composition, rather than a story? There’s five elements to the picture (at least that I’ve noticed).

The book:

Unlike @mattdm, I didn’t read the title (whilst it may be easy to read on a larger version, on the version posted with the book upside down and partially obscured I saw no reason to struggle with the title). The book itself is open on a page, face down. There are no ruffled/bent pages under the book, it looks like it has been placed in its current position rather than fallen there.

The glasses:

From the angle, it’s unclear to me if they are broken or not (the left lens looks a little odd), but they’re left on the book. Their positioning obscures the title enough that I didn’t read it, but on top of the book seems like a reasonable place for somebody to have left their glasses.

The glass:

It feels placed. If you were to stand the glass up in its natural fall line (just tilt it towards the book until it was standing), the base of the glass would be on the book. The glass could have rolled to its location; however it has a square base which would probably have hampered this. Perhaps it was knocked over and then the book placed nearby, but that seems odd, hence the feeling that it has been placed. The glass has no liquid in it (not even a drop left from previously having contents), and with nothing else in the picture suggesting liquid would be forthcoming it seems placed.

The pencil:

The positioning again looks placed. The top half of the pencil is at an angle to the bottom half, yet touching it. The broken end is pointing away from the other pencil. If it were a normal break, I’d expect the broken ends to be together, or for the ends not to be touching. The position just feels artificial. There’s nothing obvious to be written on, other than the book itself. Perhaps that’s the point.

The candle:

It’s positioning feels artificial. There is some wax over by the pencil. The wax is quite round, suggesting it was formed as a result of drops, being created prior to the candle being positioned (not as a result of the candle falling down, which I would expect to create elongated splatters). There’s also no trail between the wax and the candle, giving it a slightly unnatural feel. The candle is broken, yet still alight, lying across the book, with the flame close enough to drip wax near the book but not close enough to get wax on / burn the book. It feels placed.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with compositional art, it can be effective but trying to tell the theme ‘What happened??’ is not a small task. The least I would expect you to have to do is ask the people you are talking to what story / question / message the picture is trying to convey. If you get back a variety of answers (from somebody fell asleep, through to somebody has been abducted by aliens), then perhaps the message is there by they don’t know how to verbalise/generalise it.

For me, the dominant story in the scene was, you’ve placed some objects. The primary reason being that it didn’t feel like the objects fit together to tell a story in their current states / positions. I think part of the reason this composition is hard is because ‘What happened??’ is very abstract. I’d consider having a theory as to what you think happened. Playing the part of those involved in the scene to the point at which the scene is ready for the picture to be taken. Take a picture. Does that capture the scene you’ve just played out? Think about another possible way that the same endpoint could have been achieved. Does it work for multiple journeys? If not then maybe you need to start again and walk through the second scene... then repeat until you’re happy.

I believe this will lead to a scene that perhaps feels more natural to the outside observer. If it feels more natural, then I for one am more likely to look at what the picture may be trying to say/suggest rather than fixating on the artificiality.

I don’t think you’ve said, but how do/did you believe the photograph fit the theme?