Re: photography haram?
although the reasoning behinh your two arguments is correct but these two assumptions are not
photography is NOT an ATTEMPT to RECREATE
it is to capture a physical setting that is actually happening in a particular instance in time - photography differs from picture making at a number of levels. in photography you are capturing a 3d image in 2d. as Allah swt created me i will look at same in a photography except just a 2d version of it. picture making or painting is different - no matter how super a painter one may be he cannot paint me exactly the same way Allah swt did, and thus the painting will reflect so to speak an alterted version of me - this can be considered as altering or recreating Allah’s creation
i hope this makes sense