Have you seen the film Amelie?  Two of my friends assured me it is definitely a film to watch. The story is of Amelie Poulain, upon finding a hidden tin box full of childhood paraphernalia, sets out to return the box to the rightful owner. Along the way, she accomplishes good deeds for people in her life.

When I read Susan Sontag's On Photography, I was reminded of Amelie. Ever since the death of Amelie's mother, Amelie's father becomes a hermit. To help her father out of this purposeless state, Amelie kidnaps her father's beloved garden gnome and has her flight attendant friend snap pictures of the gnome before identifiable backdrops of Europe while she stops over between flights. Says Sontag, photographs furnish evidence, proof that a something existed, or an event occurred-"photos are miniatures of reality." The pictures of the gnome are sent to her father anonymously and they coax him out of his hermit shell: if the gnome is enjoying the world, why should he not too?

Amelie's friend, Nino Quicampoix, sweeps under photo booths in hopes of collecting unwanted photo booth strips. In fact, he obsesses over this past time, continually uncovering photographs of the same man. Nino wonders why the man keeps taking photographs at photo booths across the city, yet ends up tearing the strips them up. As Sontag suggests, this man's photographs invite fascination, and lead Nino to "think or feel what is beyond" the photographs. Nino sets on a journey to piece together this man's existence.

Nino collects the anonymous man's torn photographs and arranges them in a photo album. In essence, Nino is packaging the photos in accordance to the reality he derives from them. Put another way, he frames the photos according to his interpretation. In this sense then, Nino situates these pictures "into a certain relation to the world."

Amelie hatches a plan to help Nino figures out the purpose of the anonymous man's tearing up of his photo booth strips. She calls the photo booth repair line and arranges for Nino to be present at the prescribed booth. A man steps out of the occupied booth, picks up the processed strip, and tears it up. He is the repairman. Nino is overjoyed. His mission is over.