n0m: “Avodah zara is about worship. A physical action. Something one does to serve a higher power. It does not take place in the mind.”
Not true. See the very end of Chulin where the gemoro suggests that the reason that the mitzvah of Shiluach Haken did not save a person from falling and dying was because he may have had a “thought” of avodah zarah, in which case the mitzvah would not save him:
דלמא מהרהר בעבודה זרה הוה דכתיב למען תפוש את בית ישראל בלבם ואמר רב אחא בר יעקב זו מחשבת עבודה זרה.
Furthermore, if you attribute spiritual power to a photo, you have certainly transgressed the prohibition of creating/owning an avodah zarah, even if you don’t worship it.