I've been relatively "serious" about photography, off and on, for around 65-years. Just like playing trumpet, which started a year or two earlier, I learned by studying and practicing "rules." The photography rules included things like, get the horizon level, don't randomly cut off parts of peoples heads and feet. Look out for the background, and don't let a telephone pole look like it's growing out of the subject's head. Don't let the horizon cut the image in half, unless there's a balancing reflection. Don't blow out the highlights or lose the shadow details, etc., etc., etc.
The rules, for many of us, allow us to start getting pleasing results quickly. Those without a rules-based start might have a hard time at first, finding a pleasing result. I compare it to a classically trained musician to a trumpeter that was handed a trumpet with no guidance, other than his father's jazz record collection. The budding trumpeter, I'm thinking of Roy Hargrove, tried to sound like the records. The only "rules" were like "A" is first and second valve and Bb is first valve, but he might not have even known the name of the note, just the sound. Roy went to the same high school as my oldest, so I know that he was in junior high before he really started to read music, after he could already play many of Miles Davis' most iconic solos. In his early professional career he had to work hard to catch up with some "chops" based things, like fast tonging, which we classically, rules-based learners are taught in a "normal progression." (Miles wasn't known for any fast playing, so Roy kind of blew by that).
Me, OTOH, started playing jazz in my 40s. Unlike my wife and one of my daughters, I'd never learned to play "by ear", so my jazz training started with "these notes fit over these chords." It was pathetic and still is, although, after decades of practice, I can take a decent solo that won't make you wretch, but you won't pay for more.
Many photographers "play by ear", just like some or many musicians. Us rules-based photographers either work hard to break away from the rules, or find mediums that are well suited to "rules", like wildlife photography. I DO try to tell a story, but I often resort to "get a positive head angle", "get a light in the eye", "watch out for the rump of another animal in the background", "use a lens with a pleasing bokeh". I go for "pleasing reality" in my scenic photography, going for nice balance, nice colors, etc. It NEVER crosses my mind to shoot a wall with a old brick, new brick, clock, conduit and door. If I see and interesting pattern in nature, I might go for it, but not a wall.
Anyway, some of us use rules and some of us don't. Both are valid, I think.
Does breaking rules infringe on art, or does following rules infringe on art? I think, I depends...
