You can certainly get a view into the mind of the artists. A saying I learned 30 years ago when I first got into photography is "the lens looks both ways" mean

You can certainly get a view into the mind of the artists. A saying I learned 30 years ago when I first got into photography is "the lens looks both ways" meaning the viewer sees into the mind of the photographer, what they find interesting, as much as the photographer is looking out onto the world. As painting and photography are both forms of visual art an apt adaptation could be "the canvas looks both ways." Aside from that, truth in art is always highly subjective.