The person looking away from a photograph may remember its day more clearly than its appearance.

A picture holds a surface, and the person in it may be carrying everything the surface leaves out. Looking away is not always avoidance; sometimes the image feels thin next to what the day actually contained, and returning to it seems like trading the whole thing for a corner of it. Other times it is simply too much, and that is its own kind of remembering.

If someone sets a photograph down quickly, let them. You might ask about the day rather than about the picture, and be ready for the answer to be short.