Paintings do evoke more feelings than a photograph especially when it is something personal. Don't know why but they do.... Now I don't get the same reaction from say landscape photography versus paintings it is the other way photo is way better.
There's truth here, to a point, but don't discount the power of raw surface area. Good pictures made big have power.
There was a guy long ago that had a gallery on Pier 39 of his landscaper photography. You know, big, calendar Grand Teton stuff, and his stuff absolutely was, literally, breathtaking.
There is certainly something to the photographers eye, the lighting, etc. But it was some very nice stuff.
In high school we took a 2+ week trip up and down California. 20+ kids with 35mm cameras locked and loaded with Kodachrome.
When we got back, we had stacks of carousels of slides to go through for a final show. There was some real junk on those slides (I know, I took some of them), but some real majesty when they displayed up on a 10 foot screen.
You let 20 kids loose at Pt. Lobos, you're going to get something nice out of it, but still, not bad for a bunch of untrained high schoolers.