Anti-Realism "Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family, and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have no known components or substructure. The electron has a mass that is approximately 1/1836 that of the proton."
If an electron is capable of emitting and absorbing photons then how do we know an electron itself isn't simply an accumulation of photons moving together?
"An atom can absorb or emit one photon when an electron makes a transition from one stationary state, or energy level, to another. Conservation of energy determines the energy of the photon and thus the frequency of the emitted or absorbed light. Though Bohr’s model was superseded by quantum mechanics, it still offers a useful, though simplistic, picture of atomic transitions."
- Britannica
"According to electromagnetic theory, the rest mass of photon in free space is zero and also photon has non-zero rest mass, as well as wavelength-dependent."
- science direct