Here is an interesting question which I asked myself yesterday.
Do you think it is possible to be hypnotised or mesmorised by a photo? By that I mean you stare at it for long periods of time without really knowing why you are staring at it, yet not able to look away.
It's possible to achieve a light state of what can clinically be described as hypnosis by focusing your attention on any object for a long time, including a photo. But, under normal circumstances, I don't think a photo would render it's viewer "unable" to look away. It could be such a nice image that people don't want to look away for long periods of time, but I can't imagine that anything other than a very light trance state is possible without additional hypnotic guidance by another person, or even by the person staring at the photo.
Three possible exceptions: 1) If a person has been hypnotized previously and has been instructed to re-enter trance upon viewing a certain photo. 2) If a photo contains the actual words of a hypnotic induction or other suggestion in the shot, but this would be unlikely to have any effect on anyone other than the most highly suggestible people. 3) If your photography is so boring that it puts people right to sleep. ;-)
An hypnotic state is created by monotonous repetition, so the image would have to lead you around in a loop, each movement leading rhythmically back to the origin to begin the loop again. It would be possible for it to have many loops, and even sub-loops, but they would all have to have the same rhythm to them.
An hypnotic suggestion is the result of a message being introduced within, or through, the rhythm. So, just as an image can tell a story, each rhythmic loop of the image may contain a suggestion. In this mannor, each suggestion would build upon each other; the whole becoming stronger than the parts.
I don't have any examples of this; the image I was going to post as a partial example, of an image that kept hold of my eye while (practically) requireing them to roam about, has been removed from the photographers profile (and thus is no longer in my favorites :( ).
