1. At face value, no, photographs cannot function with morality nor speak, so they technically cannot lie. But if being referred to photographs in their essence, as a purpose? Then yes. Photographs do lie and always are lying. The reason being that they do not full represent what is in front of us. Photoshop is a lie, graphics are lies, and photographs, since they cannot capture the true nature of what exists arounds us, is inherently a lie.
2. Can these lying photographs ever tell the TRUTH? Technically, no. They can sort of make out their own kind of truth, in a way that the camera sees the world. Human’s “truth” is based off the combined effort of what we see; we all see an apple as red, minus those blind or colorblind. A camera may capture what they might see, in a way that we see it, kind of like the glasses that can make a colorblind person see colors.
3. “Realistic” works of art are exactly what the word means, “real” - “-istic”. It means that whatever is being explained or talked about is real-like not real. No art is real unless you can see it. A painting is not exactly what the object looks like to the “T” since the material is made of browns instead of wood. A work of art such as a wooden desk is real since it is seen, artwork cannot be that.
4. Art can be new, not every single possibility regarding artwork has been created. Almost anything can be considered as art, like a painting, drawing, sculpture, some even qualify music as such. In the case of just materialistic art (and traditional), creating scribble that has never been done before is absolutely possible. If someone wanted to find out if had already been done, is likely an impossible task though.
