the image control ignores the rotation stored in the metadata
Well, I'm thinking not. I started a slide (photographic transparency) copy project and created a db for it. Long story short, all the images had to be flipped as they must be photographed backwards, some needed to be rotated. Some images had to be cropped and regardless of what program I used for that, I was going nuts trying to figure out why I'd see the image in my Access form upside down, backwards or rotated. I'd see them in the image app one way, Windows File Explorer might or might not agree, so I'd rotate or flip it again - same issue - upside down or whatever. I spent hours flipping and rotating, even though I had code to do it in a batch. I was beginning to tear out my hair. The answer to the issue was mind blowing.
File Explorer icon cache needs to be rebuilt. So after processing I would alter the view setting to a list view then back again to what wanted. Voila - all images the right way around, all good in the form. Hope that helps.
The more we hear silence, the more we begin to think about our value in this universe.
Paraphrase of Professor Brian Cox.