i found this in a friend's book.

"for those around the turn of the century who were seriously committed to the potentials of photography as a creative art, the fundamental stumbling block seemed to be the medium's uncompromising specifity. if not allowed to follow it's natural bent, the camera described not Man, but men, not Nature but countless precise biological and geological facts. this tendency was not in harmony with the artistic spirt of the time, which preferred and idealized view, and which sometimes confused vagueness with poetry.'

i was unsuccessful on finding the accompanying image online, but this is it:
alvin langdon coburn
[untitled] no date
plate 3 from the cloud (1912)