I don't think it is so much a matter of "rules" as the fact that there are indeed (maybe) statistically predictable audience reactions when a group is shown a given photograph.
In my view whatever type of photography you're into, what's essential is to develop (so to speak) your own style, or vision, or whatever, so that the images you make are truly yours and not an imitation of someone else's. I also believe that the more you shoot, the better you get at achieving this personal vision. It takes time, though. Ars longa, vita brevis.
John Palcewski
The Sophia Loren Melodrama: http://www.livejournal.com/users/forioscribe
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In a given picture whether conventional form was violated deliberately or out of ignorance is determined by a dialog with the artist or familiarity with their style. I think the PF gallery achieves this well.
It seems that most would agree that rules are a substitute for experience. Likewise critics, lacking experience, use rules. More often than not, in my experience, children or intelligent adults who never heard of the rules make more engaging art. Technical shortcomings, even, often become trivial when balanced against the other strengths of the image.
Conventional notions of what constitute acceptable formal qualities are based largely on Modernist sensibilities deeply imprinted in our culture and can get in the way of meaningful execution or appraisal of art. Just about anything can conform with just the right application of cropping. As has been pointed out - the end use of a picture is strongly determined by it's formal qualities. An illustration, for example, has to conform to the "rules" of the medium it is in. As photographers we are kind of saddled with all sorts of media constraints. Break away - do something weird and wonderful today.
AZ
Build a Lookaround! The Lookaround Book, 2nd ed. NOW SHIPPING http://www.panoramacamera.us
