PHP - Is It Bad For A Photos Folder To Be Publicly Accessible?

Hello.  My website has a photo gallery of thumbnails that is created by reading all photo files in a specified directory.

Here is my function that builds the array which is ultimately displayed in the gallery...

	<?php
    function getPhotoFilesArray($photoPath){
        /**
         * Takes path to photo-directory, and returns an array containing photo-filenames.
         */
	    // Initialize Array.
    $photoFiles = array();
	    // Check for Photo-Directory.
    if (is_dir($photoPath)){
      // Photo-Directory Found.
      // Open Directory-Handle.
      $handle = opendir($photoPath);
	      // Open Photo-Directory.
      if($handle){
        // Initialize Key.
        $i = 1001;
	        // Iterate through Photo-Directory items.
        while(($file = readdir($handle)) !== FALSE){
          // Return next Filename in Directory.
          
          // Define fullpath to file/folder.
          $fullPath = $photoPath . $file;
	          // Populate Array.
	          if(!is_dir($fullPath)
              && preg_match("#^[^\.].*$#", $file)){
            // Not Directory.
            // Not Hidden File.
            // Add to array.
            $photoFiles[$i] = $file;
	            $i++;
          }//End of POPULATE ARRAY.
          
        }//End of ITERATE THROUGH PHOTO-DIRECTORY ITEMS
	        closedir($handle);
        
      }//End of OPEN PHOTO-DIRECTORY
	    }else{
      // Photo-Directory Not Found.
      // Redirect to Page-Not-Found.
      header("Location: " . BASE_URL . "/utilities/page-not-found");
	      // End script.
      exit();
	    }//End of CHECK FOR PHOTO-DIRECTORY
	        return $photoFiles;
	    }//End of getPhotoFilesArray
	?>
	

Everything works fine locally in DEV, but when I uploaded my website (and photos) onto a webserver, the photos are appearing in a backwards order in PROD.

This is annoying, because I want the photos displayed chronologically from oldest (first) to newest (last).

I'm not sure where the problem is happening, because each photo was taken with my camera and by nature of the camera, photo names are incremented by one, so IMG_001.jpg would have been taken FIRST, followed by IMG_002.jpg, IMG_003.jpg, and so on.

How can I fix things so the photos are displayed in the order they were physically taken AND match how things display locally in DEV?

Thanks!

I have a php page that creates a photo gallery with thumbnails.  It is populated by code that reads all photo files from a specified photo directory.

This was working fine in DEV, but now that I have uploaded to my test web server, the pictures are in reverse order.

Not the end of the world, yet annoying, because they should be in chronological order.

Files names are straight off my iPhone (e.g. IMG_2203.jpg, IMG_2204.jpg, IMG_2207.jpg)

What is happening, and how can I fix this?

Thanks!