Abstraction

If a little boy learns to write his ABCs perfectly, that is beautiful calligraphy, but it is worthless unless he can express himself well and use technique for his own art. You should feel what you are doing! Even if you are imitating, you must feel. Technique is only the minimum in photography. It's what one must start with. I believe that you should be a perfect technician in order to express yourself as you wish, and then you can forget about the technique. When I went to Life magazine, they told me they liked my photographs, but I was talking in them too much! They wanted documents, technique, not expressive photographs.
André Kertész

Dialogue with Photography, Paul Hill & Thomas Cooper