Re: why does photography have rules?

[MichaelHughes7A@xxxxxxx]

In a message dated 15/07/2007 21:37:15 GMT Standard Time, herschelmair@xxxxxxxxx writes:

Photography is the only art form in which people still expect the artist to previsualize the final result in some way.

Jewellers who cut and mount stones, and sculptors in wood and stone, start with their raw material and reveal what is within it and display it in an appropriate setting. This artistry seems to me closer to photography than the art of a painter who might create a picture on a blank canvass without any external reference. Thinking for a moment about portraits perhaps the nearest photographers get to creating a portrait (as opposed to recording what is there already) is when they assemble 'photo fit' pictures from a collection of images of facial components. Michael