How do you create protons ?
For instance in an electron-positron collider, you can create a quark-antiquark pair that undergoes hadronization and gluon emission -> in those processes protons and neutrons (and other hadrons) can be created.Also in a proton-antiproton collider and in a proton-proton collider, you will get free quarks and gluons that will undergo hadronization.In particle physics, a photon is a particle.