Photographers, knowing an insult when they see it, but convinced of the possibilities inherent in their tools and methods, turned away to go it alone and to shape the aesthetic and theoretical ground upon which to pin both their convictions and ambitions. Their attitude was best expressed by photographer Paul Strand in 1917:

"The full potential power of every medium is dependent upon the purity of its use, and all attempts at mixture end in such dead things as the color etching, the photographic painting and in photography, the gum-print, oil-print, etc., in which the introduction of hand work and manipulation is merely the expression of an impotent desire to paint... The photographer's problem, therefore, is to see clearly the limitations and at the same time the potential qualities of his medium, for it is precisely here that honesty, no less than intensity of vision, is the prerequisite of a living expression... The fullest realization of this is accomplished without tricks of process or manipulation, through the use of straight photographic methods."