I have no doubt that Flickr has had an immense effect on the way we relate to images, above and beyond "just" the questions of relationships that we establish or reinforce through sharing our photos. This column, however, isn't the place to examine that effect - fascinating as it may be. I often find it hard to limit myself to one topic, but I know when I'm in danger of biting off more than I can chew.

Be that as it may, it's hard not to allow myself to stretch out a bit more here. Photographs, after all, play many different roles in various aspects of our lives.

I recall that four years ago, at a funeral for someone who had been actively involved in an online community, one attendee stood out by his almost compulsive photographing. Numerous people at that funeral wondered about this, though to me it was clear that for him this was a very logical, and certainly not disrespectful, activity. After all, he was photographing so that he could "send", or "post" photographs of the event to people who had known the deceased only through that online community. It was also clear that those people would definitely appreciate being able to view those photographs. At another funeral, three years later, someone else was photographing, this time to send photos to the son-in-law of the deceased who couldn't attend. This time I got the distinct impression that this seemed totally acceptable, even logical, to the others attending.

In a similar vein, it seems to be customary that when families sit shiva they take out photo albums of the deceased (and of the family as a whole) and spread these on a coffee table so that visitors can leaf through them and reflect on a life lived. I'm sure that this is common in many cultures. Over the past few years, I've also noticed more than a few times that if there's a computer in the home, it will be set to roll through photos of the deceased that have been digitized. When my mother died we had a computer set up in my brother's living room that did this. Visitors will watch these in the same way they'll view an album on a coffee table. I haven't gotten the impression that anyone feels that there's something "unnatural", or disrespectful in this. Digitality has not only become a part of our lives, but of our deaths as well.