A method and an apparatus are provided for displaying pictures according to hand motion inputs. An application is executed for displaying a picture from among a sequence of pictures on a display. Groups of skin color blocks corresponding to a hand are detected from among image frames output from a camera. A motion is detected among the groups of skin color blocks. Direction information is obtained on the detected motion. The application is controlled to display a previous picture or a next picture in the sequence of pictures on the display according to the direction information.