Expression through Hands with Imogen Cunningham
Imogen Cunningham was an American photographer who is known for her botanical photography, portraits, and landscapes. On top of this she had a series of photographs of hands. Regarding the topic she said, “You know, whenever I photographed anybody who does anything with his hands, I usually come down and focus on them, and do the hand.” She had an interest in people and their work with their hands, an interest in who they are through their hands. These photographs do not have much context regarding their meanings within Cunningham’s records, so the exploration of gesture began.
What is the meaning behind a gesture? What can one learn from the positioning of a body or of a body’s hands? These questions bring forth the wonder behind human expression, the intrigue of emotion. These questions beget their interpretation within Imogen Cunningham’s work, pointing specifically at her portrait photography of hands. From there, the true question defines itself to be: what does Imogen Cunningham’s photography of hands express?
The first photograph to be examined is Cunningham’s Gelatin Silver Print from 1974, titled Doctor’s Hands. When first gazing at this work, the hands immediately protrude into the forefront of the scene, almost piercing their way through the flat physicality of a photograph. The contrast of light and dark is so sharp, so…