In modern android you do not open files, you use an OS service to get an image, which may or may not come from a file on the device. If you want to open files you need a different permission.

You could argue that android should have a permission level for apps that need image geolocation but not GPS.

See also: https://www.destroyallsoftware.com/talks/wat

Some phones will silently strip GPS data from images when apps without location permission try to access them.

This is quite reasonable.