Composing for Disharmony
OR
The Imperfect Composition

	Our natural desire is to compose an image with a sense of harmony and equilibrium. We are capable of achieving good composition intuitively with practice.
	
	BUT do we always want to do this or could we aim at a different response.
	
	It may be that if photographing a sad or problematic topic we find that conventional rules hardly look or feel right. Now we could introduce DRAMA or a feeling of MENACE to illustrate intense human emotions.
	
Pic of Trees
	Normally we would not allow vertical elements to divide the image space.
	Edgar Degas, however, used this concept in a number of his paintings.

Pic of Lone Building
	This isolated building appears oddly distorted as a result of the viewpoint chosen. Now this could be 	easily changed digitally but as it is this has an EDGY feel with the cropped lamp post and the building 	with no ground to sit on.

Pic of Cafe
	Roy King's picture is in the Degas genre dividing the image in two. One can assume that the two people 	are related, but because of the vertical line the man on the right is visually separated from the lady on 	the left. This splitting introduces tension and disharmony. Is this a good thing?

So how can we produce such images - by ignoring the composition 'rules'.

1]. Using a Right to Left Flow.
Normally we view images from left to right. Let us try to make the viewer got R to L instead.
2]. Inverted Counterbalance
That is instead f including elements to balance a photograph omit them. See my Video on Visual Weight https://youtu.be/LQVeC2pIhmk
3]. Sloping the Horizon
Judges always complain when the horizon is slightly on the wonk [as it technically called]. So why not exaggerate this slope to, say, 45 degrees to make a more disturbing image.
4]. Use an Extremely Wide Angle Lens.
Such a lens will make images distorted easily. It can make a sky appear to be rushing madly towards you menacingly if they have a dark hue.
5.] Interupting the Rhythm
Rows of things like cans of beans or a regular line of people or a line of fencing can be disrupted by just one of these is not conforming to the rest. So the back view of lots of nuns with just one nun turned towards the camera. That will make an arresting photograph.
6]. Important Image Elements placed at the frame edge.
In other words ignore the Rule of Thirds. The elements of your picture could be placed at the very edge  or evn slightly beyond for maximum impact on a viewer. Degas has 2 images of ballerinas like that. The ballet dancers life was and still is hard. Degas tried to photograph these trials. I will leave you to find out how hard it was for junior ballerinas in the 19th Century.
7]. Dividing the Photograph.
This is a terrible idea for the conventionalist photographer BUT interesting possibilities emerge. It also shows a characteristic of photography - that of its spontaneous nature. 

So for Homework see if you can take straight from your camera images that use some of these ideas. It will stretch your mind to find images that fit but if you do then you will have achieved something new for you at least. These may not win cups in competitions because the messages may be too obscure for untutored judges. But you know the messages and the worth of them.