Children
Give a camera to young kids and they will shoot with the purest eye ever. Primitivist artits knew it, and always tried to emulate either primitive people and/or children creations.
The best artists in the World have 6 years old or less. The school will soon kill them all.
Adults 1
Most who grab a camera don’t’ think before pressing the shutter (and that’s good), but without knowing they have lots of imprinted rules. They often don’t like the images they make, but they don’t know why. They ALWAYS shoot from eye level. They love zooms and Auto modes.
Adults2
They are amateurs (meaning that they are professional wannabes). They always need the latest piece of equipment, and always blame the equipment for the poor results. The best way to find themselves “almost pros” is to have professional equipment.
They love extreme wide angles and tilted horizons. They love patterns, abstracts, reflexes and golden light. They love long zoom lenses, IS/VR, landscapes, portraits in B&W (especially of children and elder people).
Adults3
They are pros. They use scarves (and even if they don’t, they have educated opinion about who does). They know that the equipment is only a tool, but love it as much as amateurs. The only difference is that they know how stupid it is, so they usually feel guilty and don’t brag so much about it. They hate extreme wide angles, tilted horizons, patterns, abstracts and reflexes. They love the 35 and 50mm, they love overcastted skies, and f1.4. They can’t live without depressive subjects. Junkies, prostitutes, and homeless you name it. Portrayed people must always look depressed and absent. Rules, like the rule of thirds should never be followed.
The form is always more important than the content, and formalism always comes first than any organic feeling. Any body of work must be coherent, cathartic and maybe metaphoric.
They will spend all their lives trying to shoot like children.