Photographs and other original media are an exemption to the original research policy because otherwise it'd be impossible to get images in articles.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:No_original_research...

> Because of copyright laws in several countries, there may be relatively few images available for use on Wikipedia. Editors are therefore encouraged to upload their own images, releasing them under appropriate Creative Commons licenses or other free licenses. Original images created by a Wikimedian are not considered original research, so long as they do not illustrate or introduce unpublished ideas or arguments, the core reason behind the "No original research" policy.