Have always been fascinated with hands, in a  photo shoot always seem to gravitate to them almost intuitively. I do believe that the hands are one of the physical features (the other being the eyes) that tells the greatest story about the subject wearing them.  From the lines, to the scars, to the color of  their fingernail polish, each set is  as unique photographically as a fingerprint is to ink.

Still remember my first hand shot, well it might not have been my first, but it was the first time I realized how much I loved shooting hands, and the story that they told. The pair above belong to my aunt Cora, she was in her 70s at the time, and I was a wee lass of 19 with the new camera, just learning how to make it all work. It’s really not that great of a photo, has a lot of distractions in it, but Aunt Cora was a person that I admired very much, so that makes it special to me.  She was actually my great aunt, but just preferred aunt, very vibrant character, with a great sense of humor, and a very positive personality. These are the hands of a quilter, I remember seeing her quilt for hours, and these old hands definitely reflect that.

It’s one of those photos, and people, that you wish you could go back and re-photograph with the knowledge that you have  acquired through the years.

You know it’s the little things that  you remember about each shoot, for instance this definitely works in black-and-white, getting rid of some of the distractions, but the only reason that I shot it that way at that time was because that’s what all the greats that I had been studying shot with.

I’ve shot many, many hand shots since then, some of whom I’m even happy with, but with each one I shot, my mind always go back to Aunt Cora’s hands.