  The number of publications of aperture-synthesis images based on optical
long-baseline interferometry measurements has recently increased due to easier
access to visible and infrared interferometers. The interferometry technique
has now reached a technical maturity level that opens new avenues for numerous
astrophysical topics requiring milli-arcsecond model-independent imaging. In
writing this paper our motivation was twofold: 1) review and publicize
emblematic excerpts of the impressive corpus accumulated in the field of
optical interferometry image reconstruction; 2) discuss future prospects for
this technique by selecting four representative astrophysical science cases in
order to review the potential benefits of using optical long baseline
interferometers. For this second goal we have simulated interferometric data
from those selected astrophysical environments and used state-of-the-art codes
to provide the reconstructed images that are reachable with current or
soon-to-be facilities. The image reconstruction process was "blind" in the
sense that reconstructors had no knowledge of the input brightness
distributions. We discuss the impact of optical interferometry in those four
astrophysical fields. We show that image reconstruction software successfully
provides accurate morphological information on a variety of astrophysical
topics and review the current strengths and weaknesses of such reconstructions.
We investigate how to improve image reconstruction and the quality of the image
possibly by upgrading the current facilities. We finally argue that optical
interferometers and their corresponding instrumentation, existing or to come,
with 6 to 10 telescopes, should be well suited to provide images of complex
sceneries.
