Many years ago, a very good friend turned up at my house saying, “Look what I’ve just found!” He handed me a battered photo of an old-looking guy and remarked on how odd it was to have found such a thing. The guy himself looked a little shifty (as do most people in passport photos) and a lengthy discussion took place regarding the possible origins of the bloke. I placed it on my mantle piece for all to see and to invite further discussions about who the guy might be.
It remained there for a few days, frequently drawing attention from visitors. People would ask, “So who’s the guy in the passport photo?” To which I would reply, “I haven’t a clue. It’s just some random chap’s photo my mate found in the street”. Nothing much was ever said after that. I’d get a few odd looks, but people would generally leave it at that. A few people would comment on who he might be, on his possible past, etc., but not to the extent to which I’d hoped.
About a week later, he turned up again with another passport photo. Again, this was found dropped on the street. We commented on how strange it was to have found 2 random passport photos in the space of a week and stuck it on the mantle piece with the other
Then it started getting crazy.
He kept finding more and more passport photos every week, all of them found either in the street or on the back of buses, etc. Each of them was added to the collection and soon we had about 20.
Naturally, this provoked slightly more interest from visitors than before, each of them saying that surely we can’t have found all of these just lying around. Most people were surprised that they were all genuine lost passport photos and many people didn’t believe that you could find so many in such a short space of time.
The funny thing was though, the people who didn’t believe it would generally turn up a few days later saying, “You’re not going to believe this, but look what I’ve just found!”.
The rest, to quote a tired cliche, is history…
Read more: The Lost Passport Gallery
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