Project Statement

Technology and tools are neutral entities. How we choose to use them defines how they are perceived or appreciated, and even loathed. The human hands are no different. The hands possess incredible power to be instruments of compassion and creativity; they are also capable of enabling addiction and inflicting extreme cruelty. Through my practice, for which I use film and digital cameras, I have been fortunate to express the reality and bear witness to many planes of our collective existence.  Wherever photography takes me, I am fascinated by what I see to be the inherent beauty of human hands. And, I have begun to realize that the forms hands take, the objects they hold, and the people they grasp, tell stories rooted in the subliminal. In Prehensile Instruments, a personal anonymity is achieved by absence of any reference to the subjects’ visage. Instead, the subjects’ actions are prioritized, and even called into question by observing what they are holding, who they are touching, or what they are doing with their hands. A range of expressions are represented, from creativity and drug use, to tenderness and even violence. Prehensile Instruments invites the question: are our actions defined by what we are holding, using, or touching, or who is holding them?