Could be your settings, though I don't know which ones would influence not being able to see pictures. Do you have your security settings set high? That may block it. Could also be your ISP.
I have IE 6.0 and have no trouble with seeing pics on the net. I didn't have 5.5 for long enough to see if there was a pattern. Went from 5.0 to 5.5 to 6.0 in 1 week.
Very goood! I like the AOL keyword Outta Time. LOL