Ever Found a Photo of a Total Stranger?
this entry brought to you by the white stripes, "death letter"
Sometimes when I'm walking home, I find errant photographs on the ground. Often with footprints and scratches on them from being walked over for however long they've been laying there, although occasionally they'll be glossy.
There's something kind of eery about looking at photos of people you don't know, particularly if they are personal photos as opposed to portraits. Even on the Internet where photos are put up for all to see, there's something voyeuristic about looking through someone else's pictures. Maybe they are having fun. Do you wish you were there? Would you have been hjaving fun too if you were there? Maybe it's an artistic photo. Photographs only tell you a moment, though, and not why the person chose to take it, neccesarily. Maybe you want to know the story of the picture.
But finding a photo is a bit different, because it raises different thoughts. On the Internet, photos were meant to be looked at. But a stray photo on the ground... This is a moment in this person's life, one 30th of a second of someone's existence capture, and you were never expressly given permission to look at it. And why has it been misplaced? Is the picture of the person that owned it, and they weren't happy with the way they came out? Was this a person with whom the relationship had gone sour and the photo was discarded on purpose? Or was the photo accidentally lost? Does the owner miss it? What if they got home and found out that it, perhaps the only photo they'd ever taken of that person, was missing?
-----
with love from CRS @ 6:51 PM
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
Sometimes when I'm walking home, I find errant photographs on the ground. Often with footprints and scratches on them from being walked over for however long they've been laying there, although occasionally they'll be glossy.
There's something kind of eery about looking at photos of people you don't know, particularly if they are personal photos as opposed to portraits. Even on the Internet where photos are put up for all to see, there's something voyeuristic about looking through someone else's pictures. Maybe they are having fun. Do you wish you were there? Would you have been hjaving fun too if you were there? Maybe it's an artistic photo. Photographs only tell you a moment, though, and not why the person chose to take it, neccesarily. Maybe you want to know the story of the picture.
But finding a photo is a bit different, because it raises different thoughts. On the Internet, photos were meant to be looked at. But a stray photo on the ground... This is a moment in this person's life, one 30th of a second of someone's existence capture, and you were never expressly given permission to look at it. And why has it been misplaced? Is the picture of the person that owned it, and they weren't happy with the way they came out? Was this a person with whom the relationship had gone sour and the photo was discarded on purpose? Or was the photo accidentally lost? Does the owner miss it? What if they got home and found out that it, perhaps the only photo they'd ever taken of that person, was missing?
-----
