Here's something I learned along the way...
When living in England a few years ago I joined a local camera club and quite enjoyed the experience. The folks there were much more into the art and presentation of photography with much less emphasis on the equipment (which is the opposite of what I've experienced here in Canada with photo clubs).
Whilst there, I had an interesting series of conversations about landscape photos. When showing my landscape photos I was often criticized for the complete lack of people in the photos. "They" want to see people for various reasons: a focal point, scale, what have you. I scratched my head over that one for a while until I realized that being Canadian and one who tries gets away from it all in a canoe or on a backpacking trail, the last thing I want in my photos are people. To me, people ruin the whole feeling of wilderness.
I realized that when we tried to "get away from it all" in Britain, there were still people around. Even on the most remote trails, we would run into others. So, to the Brits (at least some of them, it seems), a landscape without people is rather foreign. So, understandable, landscape photos without people just don't seem to feel right either.
So, it would seem, differences in culture do have a significant influence on photography appreciation.