Searching for hands

I have thousands of photos on my computer and external hard drives. For years I’ve tried to archive my photos “the right way” but honestly, I could use some guidance. So many RAW and JPEG and TIFF files, so many photos to sort through. I use Lightroom 5 which is a great tool for editing but most importantly for organizing, sorting and searching for photographs. With all of these digital files sometimes I feel like a hoarder of images who doesn’t want to let go and/or delete them.  Perhaps, I should just print all of them and place them in photo albums, remember those? Binders full of photographs, to gaze upon and hold in your hands.

Lately, I have been going through my images searching for themes. I noticed that I seem to have been taking lots of pictures of hands. Hands holding. Hands touching. Reaching out. From the hands of a newborn holding tight to her older sister’s hand to the hands of an old man — my father — petting the feathers on a head of my auntie’s parrot. Each pair of hands unique in the texture of the skin, the way the light reflects off the nails, the gestures captured with my hand held DSLR.

Hands to hold.

Hands to prepare food.

Hands to hold up our young ones.

Hands of an older sister to hold onto.

Hands to write notes with.

Hands to hold bullets.

Hands for dancing.

Hands for making music.

Hands to explore nature.

Hands for making moccasins.

Hands to show found treasures.

Hands to paint on.

Hands for touching.

Hands for making snowmen.

Hands for picking cranberries.

Hands for drawing.

Hands to lick.

Hands for holding birds nests.

Hands for grasping.

Hands for typing.

Hands for cleaning salmon.

Hands for touching eulachon eyeballs.

Hands for helping.

Hands for sewing buttons.

Hands for letting go.

-Amanda Laliberte