Python 2.7.3 . . . Write .jpg/.png image file?

What you are looking at in your text edit is a binary file, trying to represent it all in human readable characters.

Just open the file as binary in python:

with open('picture.png', 'rb') as f:
    data = f.read()

with open('picture_out.png', 'wb') as f:
    f.write(data)