In short: Jesus was a real Person. Christian doctrine teaches that He was fully God and fully Man. It's not as simple as it seems. The Jesus Who died on the cross was the Man; His other Nature, the divine one, never suffered or died. It is therefore permitted to represent Jesus the Man, fully human.
Inconography was successfully defended by the 9th century John of Damascus. Icons represent real people, not deities.
What is wrong in the Christian tradition is the practice of some to pray to the statues and pictures of real people as if the images somehow represent the real presence of a person or persons represented.
That is idolatry and neither the Eastern Orthodox nor Roman Catholic Church teaches that. People kneeling in front of and praying to graven images do not understand their own religion and are most likely superstitious, but the practice is heresy.
Icons and statues should be no different than pictures and statues of other people we revere, love and respect, such as our family members, national heroes, etc. Looking at a photograph of your loved ones must never be confused with looking at a real person, although we may smile at the image or even kiss the picture. The substance of the image is never the substance of the person represented in the image.