Shooting blurred photos can be considered opposite of black and white photography - while black and white is about hiding colors to bring out shapes and shadows, blurring helps to reveal colors by hiding shapes and shadows. An interesting subcategory is a combination of the opposites - black and white blurs - where distractions by both details and colors are hidden away to bring out larger shapes or patterns.

Blurred images could be used for several purposes, like

• to hide boring shapes that have interesting colors;
• to hide unwanted details on interesting shapes;
• to give feeling of mind-boggling motion;
• to evoke memories - colors/shapes alone can trigger some memories stronger than same image with details - because only the colors/shapes match memories of other people, not the details;
• to initiate curiosity - a blurred image and a catchy title might induce a person into taking some action, like reading accompanying article;
• to differ from the ubiquitous super-sharp photography;
• to suggest a hurried "caught moment";
• to suggest that someone is leaving (walked out of focus);
• to create some new shapes with light sources leaving stripes in the frame.

As an example, Michael Orton is a photographer who has taken lots of great blurred images. The roots of creating blurry images are, however, much older, starting with (pre-)impressionist painters like Joseph Mallord William Turner (aka "the painter of light") and Claude Monet.