Mindwalk: Just a Picture

You are in a room alone, waiting for something. You don't have anything and the room has nothing for you to do while you wait. The only thing that catches your attention is a poster with a picture. It is a close up shot of a small number of people, smiling at an angle away from the camera. When and where was this picture taken? Do these people know they are being used for an advertisement? And who are these people? What are they doing now?

Often people pass a picture without giving it a thought. After all the odds of seeing yourself in such of a poster is slim. Yet here is a moment in someone's time... whether important like graduating from college or common like a urban shot of people going here to there... which this person might not know exists, publicized all over the world potentially. Is it a good or bad thing to wonder who this person is? A query on how well the person is doing or an invasion of privacy?

Thanks to the Internet, you can view pictures of all sorts of strangers. Or for that matter, people you know but never seen. They may mean nothing to you, you nothing to them, yet you are seeing part of their lives. For example, look here and ask yourselves those questions. How did I came about this webpage? One of them share my last name. Since Ogans are not common, I automatically wonder who he is. Do you, at times, see a picture of someone and wish they will know you as you know them?

Why is it that sometimes a person is eager to show a picture? "Yeah, I just got some pictures of _____ developed... want to look?" Is it to give a chance to show something good and want to spread it around? At other times, a picture can be harmful. The destruction of a picture that means a lot to you, a captured moment saved for the memories, is lost forever. Or, if it is harmful to you, its destruction is the bringer of liberation. And what if that picture with you in it becomes itself a major news item, like Elian or this picture of the Oklahoma City bombing?

A picture, then, is a personal item for the one in it which isn't private, available to all who happen to see it, whether a person will just passes it by without a care or stop and take a moment to look at it. One day you just happen to see a poster concerning a public event you were in and notice yourself in a picture. Two people walk by, one just gave it a glance, the other slowed down and took the time to view it. What are your thoughts about these people? What if the poster is positive or negative about the event?