strange post photoalbum Apache/PHP error to view uploaded photos

Hi..

I've managed to finally get plupload.com-2.3.7 to correctly upload around
20GB of HD and 4K photos spread out over around 170 sub-folders into my
CMS,
but after the upload, when i try to view the files, i get an Apache level
"Access denied" message in the browser when i try to use
https://github.com/nicerapp/nicerapp/blob/main/nicerapp/userInterface/photoAlbum/4.0.0/index.php
to access the uploaded files.

I don't for the love of life itself can figure out why it's doing this, but
i can tell you the following :
-
https://github.com/nicerapp/nicerapp/blob/main/nicerapp/userInterface/photoAlbum/4.0.0/upload.2.3.7.php
shows debug information that lists the chown rene:www-data command on the
files to fail, but that's understandable because apache runs as
www-data:www-data.
However, the chmod 770 command on the files does succeed, and that means
that any webpage that tries to read the files should be able to correctly
get the files list for a sub-folder and the files therein.

- after running my
https://github.com/nicerapp/nicerapp/blob/main/setPermissions.sh script
after the upload has fully completed, the photoalbum/4.0.0/index.php
display script works without the access denied bug and correctly displays
the sub-folder contents.

i'm probably doing something wrong in some of my scripts, and i have a live
demo for you to try at https://said.by (all you have to do is register on
the site, but you don't need to click a confirmation email link yet),
and i'd like some help figuring out what i need to do differently..

Thanks in advance for any help you'll be able to provide.