12 steps to the worst photograph ever - part 1 - IMPACT

So, this is the part 1 of how to make your photograph worse than it was. Again, this discussions will be based on this completely non-sense 12 elements of artistic photography proposed by Professional photographers of America (PPA).

Again, I find it eternally stupid. No wonder we the American do not produce important photographers. We are very good at producing philandering athletes and admiring them, but that is another story.

Please keep in mind that they say they listed all 12 points in the order of importance. I am also floored about that. I am simply amazed that they think that there is such a thing as the order of importance. My God.

So this is what they have to say about the most important aspect of photography - impact.

Impact is the sense one gets upon viewing an image for the first time. Compelling images evoke laughter, sadness, anger, pride, wonder or another intense emotion. There can be impact in any of these twelve elements.

First and foremost, I am very very weary of first impressions. I know I am not the only one who will admit to it, but there have been many girls where the first impressions did not foreshadow what lied underneath (not physically of course). I am more interested in lasting impressions. To me, first impression is nothing more than unrefined thoughtless evaluation processes of your own emotion, not the work itself. You can say that it is very debatable whose emotion is more important between the author and the viewer. I tend to think that what the viewers feel upon looking at the image is very much secondary. More important to me is the intent of a photographer, and to what extent that intent was conveyed to the the beholders. How the viewers feel to me is so random, uncontrolled that it goes straight against the whole notion of why art form bothers to exist in the first place.

This is a picture of the federal building in SF. Because of its uniqueness of the design, it provokes a lot of emotions amongst people who live in SF. The oddity of the architecture provides more or less an impact, but that is about it. It offers nothing more. To me, aesthetics runs much deeper.