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10-Minute Challenge: I Spy photo that launched a phenomenon

Source: nytimes.com

TL;DR

NYT Upshot challenges readers to spend 10 uninterrupted minutes studying Walter Wick's "Odds and Ends" photo from the I Spy series.
The series, launched in 1992 with collaborator Jean Marzollo, has sold over 75 million copies worldwide.
Wick's detailed arrangements teach slow, critical looking at everyday objects, fostering discovery and imagination in children.

The story at a glance

The New York Times Upshot presents a focus challenge using Walter Wick's photograph "Odds and Ends," the starting point for the blockbuster I Spy seek-and-find books created with Jean Marzollo. It recounts how Wick arranged household objects on a light table in 1982, following rules like no touching items, which led to the series' success. This fits the Upshot's ongoing 10-Minute Challenge series to build attention spans. The books drew from influences like M.C. Escher and dense urban photos.

Key points

Wick made "Odds and Ends" over two days by arranging objects such as a shovel, silver chain, toy horse, birthday candle, gold ring, puzzle piece, and king's crown on a light table for shadowless abstraction.
His creation rules: no two objects touch, nothing at a right angle—loosely enforced—to create "orderly chaos" from mundane items.
Jean Marzollo added riddles like "I spy a shovel, a long silver chain / A little toy horse, a track for a train / A birthday candle, a pretty gold ring / A small puzzle piece, and a crown for a king."
I Spy books expanded to themes like school days, fantasy, Rube Goldberg machines, city blocks, and paper cutouts, captivating kids who pored over every detail.
Influences include M.C. Escher's illusions, René Magritte's surrealism, Berenice Abbott's crowded photos, and 1960s album art like The Beatles' Sgt. Pepper.
Compared to Sol LeWitt's Wall Drawing #73: random, non-touching lines at maximum density, mirroring Wick's object placement.

Details and context

Wick started as a studio organizer but turned objects into compositions that clarified their textures and light—shiny chains, matte buttons, reflective clips. This 1982 photo caught Scholastic's eye, sparking I Spy in 1992 and sequels through the 1990s and 2019's Flatland.

Children engaged intensely, spending floor time scanning corners, which Wick called "hoovering up this stuff." He aimed to build worlds where kids find thinkers like themselves through shared discovery.

The challenge prompts questions like noticing light on one object, squinting at white space, or linking to childhood memories, with an interactive scroll to extend time.

Key quotes

"I walked into the studio that day simply intending to clean and organize... But instead decided to make that composition with no hint of how it would impact my career years later." — Walter Wick
"It had always been my intention, even way before ‘I Spy,’ to make pictures that would compel people to linger." — Walter Wick[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/05/upshot/ten-minute-challenge-spy.html)

Why it matters

The piece highlights how deliberate visual design in children's media builds sustained attention in a distracted age. Readers and parents gain a tool for focus practice, while creators see how simple rules yield massive cultural impact—75 million books sold. Watch for more Upshot challenges on art that rewards close looking.[[1]](https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2026/04/05/upshot/ten-minute-challenge-spy.html)