Regardless

I will produce my photographs whether or not a certain type of person or quota of people ever see or like them. I am a person who uses the medium of photography as an attempt to bridge myself as an individual to everyone and everything outside of myself.

My images have their own personal meaning to me; they are not meant to dictate how anyone else should see the world. The conversation, emotions, and thoughts provoked that my images may, and I hope do, incite are more important to me than what information I chose to provide in that single frame. When I ask people for their critical examination of my work it is out of desire that they share with me whatever they feel my image may lack, preserve, arouse, or comment about itself. The viewer's examination has the possibility of revealing to me the holes in my character, self-image, world view that I had previously not been aware of. And vice versa do I hope my images offer the viewer a chance for new awareness of themselves and the world outside themselves.

When I take my camera out and start photographing a subject I could end up, when time permits, with multiple versions. Every frame to some degree thought-out but out of them all there is one that is better than the rest. But I do not think I would notice it as being the better if it were not for the other attempts. I would say that partly the cause in this observation about myself is acknowledgment of the constant bombardment of senses that I face every time I hold my camera up to my eye. Although I will never stop trying to, I know that I cannot succeed every time. The challenge of prioritizing all the senses and sometimes having only one chance to get it "right" is what keeps me from losing interest in this medium. Sometimes, the cause of an image is much more pure in that the only motive that propels me to press the shutter and make an image is my excitement and eagerness to share it with others whom I think would enjoy the sight as much as I did. It is this pure motive that keeps me from discriminating/running out of subject matter (this is a reference to Eggleston's "Democratic Camera" approach to photography).

Question I've been thinking about- If majority of the 7 elements of design are kept in mind- will following them lead to good composition no matter the medium? I read somewhere that our brains were wired to "like/prefer" some forms and compositions more than others...