This is because a photon has no mass and always travels at the speed of light in all reference frames. A photon never observes time because the effects of time dilation at the speed of light is infinite and due to relativity they don’t experience the events between their emission and absorption as they don’t decelerate when they’re absorbed. In a very real sense from the photons perspective they never exist and don’t experience a temporal dimension. However from a frame of reference less than the speed of light - which all objects of mass experience - we can observe their creation, propagation, and absorption.

Reality is stranger than fiction!!