Photography uses different methods to assert itself as meaningful. Whether the pictures are from the far past or the immediate present, either familiar or not, can suggest a story since a picture can represent a thousand words. Suppose a single picture can suggest a story to the person viewing the photo; the suggestion of the story behind the photo might differ from one person to another. However, one thing that is common amongst everyone when looking at an unfamiliar photo of the inevitable unknown, the haunting and creepy feeling that lingers as one stares at an unfamiliar photo longer and longer. Many factors could bring the lingering creepiness and haunted feeling when associating with photos from the past with unknown or no background information or a photo from the present taken at a specific frame.
With older photos, the lingering haunting feeling could come from discolouration, sitting for an extended period and gone through many transits, or it is the hue of the film. Another reason could be due to some photos taken back in the day being black and white. Black and white photos provide a distant aura and presence compared to colour photography. In older photos, most of the photos are either found in a box or an album covered in dust in the attic or basement; we do not know all the details nor the entire back story. However, from analyzing and staring at either a photo from the past or the present, the details and interpretation start to arise, and a general story in one’s mind starts to piece together.