Technique and style. Like apples and oranges. Both are fruits, but different fruits. In a fruit salad, they complement one another. Eaten separately, they are just as delicious.
Since I retired, I also have started to look at and print my old negatives. For me, this was not just about revisiting my past experiences, but about how my 'style' (if I dare to call it that) evolved, and why.
I am amazed at what I now see in those old so-called 'missed' shots. Elements pop out that I somehow consciously missed at the time, but my subconscious picked up and pushed me to make the shot.
Some of my best style of images are the out-of-focus ones. Obviously, the technique/s I used to make them I regarded at the time as wrong approaches. I am now so thankful that I kept those failures.
As an architect now retired, for several decades I fussed (unnecessarily, as I now see) over keeping the verticals perfectly vertical, the exact moment when the lighting was at its best, and the elements I could remove in the foregrounds. In analogue days it was infinitely more difficult to 'edit' images in the darkroom than it now is with scanning and post-processing. My Nikkormats and Rolleiflex had to be carefully positioned to eliminate unwanted things in the foregrounds like fire hydrants, power poles, TV aerials and suchlike. I had to work almost entirely with tripods and spirit levels. In the 1980s the lenses I used (20mm, 85mm and 180mm Nikkors) usually cost more than the cameras, especially those super expensive and annoying to use PCs (perspective control, not politically correct!). All this was the 'technique' I used. The 'style' basically came out of how I presented my images to my clients or for publication or even as displays on my office walls, and in my case this mostly came out by itself, seemingly on its own, mostly out of the back parts of my brain. As I now realise when I revisit my now-ageing negatives and slides.
Now in the 21st century, my digital DSLRs and scanners have freed me from all that unwanted tyranny. Recently, an old client asked me to attend a shoot for a company brochure of an office I designed in the late '90s. An excellent lunch was offered as pro quo payment and for old time's sake I accepted for old time's sake. On the site, I was surprised (and I will admit, quite dismayed) when the photographer, a charming 20-something young lady exuding wonderful confidence and a great presence, arrived with two somewhat dated DX Nikons and 18-55 kit lenses. She obviously knew what she was doing and so I bit my tongue, but I did wonder what the results would be and how the client would react to possibly "inferior" images. My fears were groundless. The results, when I saw them, were as good as anything I could have produced with one of my Hasselblads, the standard lens for which cost more than this young photographer's entire bag of gear.
So yes, technique and style have their places in photography, but I believe it is important that we keep them separate, and not confuse one for or with the other. they are, as I have said, like apples and oranges, and while they can be enjoyed together as a salad, they are also excellent when eaten on their own.
