Cannot show image if I use absolute path

I have thousands of pictures stored in a directory with no relation to the asp application. I want to show these pictures in the asp application but seems like asp:Image control accepts only the relative paths. How can I show the pictures using the absolute paths? For test purposes I tried the following line which works:
Image1.ImageUrl = "~/Images/9944483079.jpg";
but the one below does not although it resolves the same path:

Image1.ImageUrl = "file///C:/Users/MyName/Documents/Visual Studio 2005/Projects/ProjectFolderName/ProjectName/Images/9944483079.jpg";

 

& ...