[Leica] What are the most important aspects of a photographic image?

[ken at iisaka.com (Ken Iisaka)]

To me, regardless of whether it's a portrait, a snapshot, or even a
landscape, it's the story that is contained in the image that is of utmost
important to me.

Technical excellence is a given.  However, technical perfection for its own
sake is not necessary.  The technical aspects of the art must not interfere
with the story being told.

Photographs are but a 2-dimensional slice of a 4-dimensional world.  Yet,
the most important photographs evoke a sensory experience in the other
dimensions: the physical context at the moment when the photograph was
taken, and the flow of time before and after the photograph was taken.

It's no different from what I consider important in other art forms, eg:
music, paintings, poetry.