There are many aspects that make up a 'personal style' in photography. It could be the gear you use, the type of light, your post processing style or film choice. Your style could be determined by the stories you are trying to tell, the philosophy behind your work, your concept or message.
For years, I battled choosing a niche and style. Everyone will tell you to pick a niche if you want to find success, but I was resistant.
Don Hong-Oai was a San Francisco-based Chinese photographer who created beautiful images that resembled traditional Chinese paintings.
The photographs of Don Hong-Oai are made in a unique style of photography, which can be considered Asian pictorialism. This method of adapting a Western art for Eastern purposes probably originated in the 1940s in Hong Kong. One of its best known practitioners was the great master Long Chin-San (who died in the 1990s at the age of 104) with whom Don Hong-Oai studied. With the delicate beauty and traditional motifs of Chinese painting (birds, boats, mountains, etc.) in mind, photographers of this school used more than one negative to create a beautiful picture, often using visual allegories. Realism was not a goal.
Hong-Oai was one of the last photographers to use this technique, and was also arguably the best.