I totally understand where you are coming from tegan!

For me though there is something about being able to break the rules once you know them. There IS a subjective quality to all of this.

Maybe a bad example is the peotry of ee cummings. Wacky stuff for sure - but no one can dispute his great contributions to modern poetry. Of course a poetry purist can tear him a new one anytime.

In a similar way many great photographers and photographs break the conventional rules all the time. Depending on who is critiquing the work and the background they come from, their reviews will surely vary...that's the subjective quality. Surely photography is not like math where there is only 1 right answer. There are of course some 'rules', but unlike a math problem there are often many right answers depending on who is correcting the test.

Just my 2 cents -

Thanks
Marko