A useful heuristic:
Study the masters of the masters you admire, in order to learn deeper.
For example, I love Henri Cartier-Bresson and in order to better understand him, I discovered that his first teacher (painting) was Andre Lhote:
Study for ‘Homage to Watteau’ 1918 Andr? Lhote 1885-1962 Bequeathed by Frank Hindley Smith 1940 http://www.tate.org.uk/art/work/N05073 
So the cool thing is this:
We can better understand the composition, geometry, and art-aesthetic philosophy of Henri Cartier-Bresson through Andre Lhote.
For example:
- Surrealism in photography and street photography
- Simple, geometric, layered compositions.
Comparisons
You see similarities of composition styles.
Even this painting of Lhote which looks like a street photo:
