Hallo!
pix_image crashes on my machine, while loading a jpeg:
don't use pix_image at all in your context, because it has a huge memory leak in it's cache (anyway, the cache is unnecessary ...)
so use pix_multiimage, or pix_buffer, ...
LG Georg
(gdb) bt #0 0xb71f2ecb in jpeg_idct_islow () from /usr/lib/libjpeg-mmx.so.62
not really a helpful backtrace, i know, but better than nothing ...
cheers .. tim