how to attach a photo as an attachment vs within the email text?

I tried that too, but "View qs icon" only seems to change the view to the icon while I am composing the email. When the sent message arrives, the image is still embedded in the text and I have again to use "View as icon", even when I am sending all messages as plain, unformatted text.

I am compressing the image and sending it as a zip file (in the Finder, ctrl-click on the image, select "Compress"). Then Mail has no chance to embed it as inline image.

It used to help to use "Edit > Attachments > Always send Windows Friendly Attachments", but that does no longer suffice to prevent the image from being sent inline.

How the email shows at the receiver's end is entirely down to the settings that person has on their computer.