Photo on title page of Manuscript?

I have a manuscript which, in my opinion, is very close to being ready to submit (after about 3 years of work, and of lurking here!) It is not a genre piece, just a fictional story about a group of friends.

My question is this: I have a photo that is eerily reminiscent of the opening chapters, and I am considering including it on the title page of the manuscript in some understated way. Having read some other threads on similar topics it would appear that this might look amateurish. If that is the case I would leave it off, but part of me thinks it might provide an eye catching introduction and that rules can sometimes be broken for effect.

I'm under no illusions that if the novel were published the picture would be used as cover art or similar, I'll happily leave that decision up to someone with more experience and better judgement than I.

I suppose the purpose of this post is to re-ask an old question in a slightly different context. Any advice would be welcome.

 

The story's words should paint the picture to the mind's eye of the reader.

 

I wouldn't include it as per what everyone else said.

 

yes, it would be amateurish to the max... don't!

 

Follow the agents/publisher's rules for manuscript format EXACTLY. They get so many, they can afford to automatically reject any who don't follow the rules.

 

Thanks everyone, much appreciated.