srt10, I see your point-- the obsession with what others think can be a roadblock to talent. However, Aristotle said that we start any skill by training, or imitating masters (or any teachers). I agree with him on the psychology of it. And I think we never stop learning, so when we see the great work of others, the first thing we do is to try it out for ourselves. Soon we will apply these lessons to new applications or in new ways--creatively.

Creation myths or stories show humans are like their creator in that they too create--but unlike the supreme creator, we cannot make things out of nothing. Even the jazz musician who ventures off the track of a theme, ad lib, still begins with the theme itself--usually written by somebody else but always written down by somebody, perhaps the performer. Artists of all kinds begin by copying those they admire or the works they like. The freedom (and the art) of creativity begins only as we tire of imitation and seek to improve on it. When we can shoot a photo in any of the styles we have studied, as any of the great masters might shoot it, then we are free, applying creative interpretation to a scene. Just breaking rules is not in itself creative genius, but it is indeed genius to apply the rules of one style to the occasion of other content (as when one applies the art of photojournalism to the art of portraiture, etc.)

What I call graphic art (as opposed to photography proper) is a horse of a different color. People who construct pictures with their bare hands, so to speak (as when showing dolphins or dinosaurs coming out of the head of a boy who is daydreaming, or melt negatives on purpose, etc.) are making up images. There is a market for such things, especially in advertising but also in photo galleries. Sometimes graphic art and photography overlap, and sometimes they don't.

In photography, generally speaking, the content is primary because photographs are generally meant to present content rather than mere shapes and colors in abstraction. Even abstract art of all kinds still presents content--well or badly. But content cannot be presented without some degree of technical skill or technical equipment. When people with arthritis play the piano, the marvel is not that they can play well but that they can play at all.