Strangers in Pixels

Strangers in Pixels
Sometimes, the most revealing picture is the one you never took.
Seventeen-year-old Harper views the world through the scratched lens of a vintage digital camera. From her bench in the Burlington Mall, she captures the candid despair of strangers, inventing elaborate backstories to fill the void of her own suburban existence in Newton. She is the ultimate observer-safe, detached, and invisible.
But when her lens captures Mia, a mysterious new girl crying in the food court, the glass wall between Harper and reality begins to crack.
As a fragile friendship forms, Harper is pulled into a web of secrets involving Arthur, her enigmatic neighbor-a fallen tech mogul seeking redemption in vinyl records-and Liam, a classmate who smells of autumn and impending change.
When Mia suddenly vanishes without a trace, leaving behind only digital silence, Harper discovers that her carefully composed reality is glitching. A haunting photograph reveals an impossible connection between Arthur and Mia, blurring the lines between past mistakes and future tragedies.
Now, Harper must make a choice: remain a passive observer of a story on repeat, or step into the frame and rewrite the ending.
About the Author
Alon Meller is a musician, creative artist, educator, and social entrepreneur. He is the founder of the non-profit organization "The Music Experience Israel" (Havat Ha'Musika), dedicated to making music accessible and impactful for diverse communities. Strangers in Pixels explores the themes of loneliness, connection, and the hidden "B-sides" of life that Meller often examines in his educational and artistic work.