Okay, rewrite #5.
Those of us present at the moment understand this, but I'll state it plainly for any visitors who might not know: these are my opinions, and I'm not passing them off as fact. They reflect my outlook, my philosophy, and if you disagree, great! If you agree, also great! It's all about individual taste and preference, as I'll reiterate shortly.
If someone intends a specific effect, and achieves it through volation of the generally-accepted guidelines we may or may not call "rules," then so be it. If the message they inted to convey is in fact conveyed, then they are successful. Whether or not we find it aesthetically pleasing is an entirely different issue--with the exception of a hired job, such as a wedding or whatever, where the photog is expected to produce work in accordance with customer specifications.
"It's just my style." If someone understands what he is doing well enough to consciously control what he's doing, and does indeed exercise that conscious control, then he's justified in making this statement. If he doesn't, then he's not. If he says that "it's just my style," then in the former case, the statement is valid; but in the latter, it's invalid, merely a thinly-veiled excuse for uncertainty of purpose--or worse, justification for incompetence. However, it's not up to us to decide this. We can form our opinions, but ultimately it's on his own integrity.
Any image that conveys the photographer's intentions, whether we like it or not, is a successful photograph. Robert Maplethorp is my favorite example. I despise most of his work--at least, what I've seen of it. It is intensely unappealing to me. However, it clearly conveyes his intent, and his work is therefore successful. That's all I'm trying to get at.
As for snapshots... they're a special case. They aren't intended as art, they're intended as a record of an event or scene which the photog thought worth recording as a memory-aid. Perhaps he'll share them, perhaps not. Perhaps they'll be "properly" composed and exposed, perhaps not. In either case, they're usually successful, in that they evoke the memory they were intended to evoke.
That's why, for instance, the snapshots from my last birthday party aren't hanging in a museum somewhere. They aren't art. They were only ever intended to bring to mind the events of that day, and nothing else.
That, and because I burned them as incriminating evidence.
Okay, I think I'm done, now.
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