Touch and Gesture in Life and Photography

Holding My Hand is a school essay I wrote many years ago. It is an essay about my grandfather, or rather about my childhood memory of my grandfather, as he walked with me, holding my hand, thus making me feel safe, as if nothing could go wrong in the world, or at least in my world.

The human touch–physical…or not–can be quite powerful, evoking a welcoming feeling of comfort and compassion, of safeness, if only for a moment. Holding hands also symbolizes unity, friendship, getting along, making peace, coming together to celebrate life or conquer obstacles on our journey through life.

I wonder if we can still do that, come together, hold and shake hands. It seems less and less likely nowadays.

As I might have mentioned in previous posts, we can say a lot through the language of gesture. We can talk with our hands in so many fantastic and fascinating ways, and tell compelling stories that oftentimes cannot be expressed in words.

But remember, words can hurt or help. And so can gestures.

Here’s a storyboard with various hand gestures I created for a project I was working on during the COVID pandemic.

Visual artists in particular focus on hands to emphasize subjects’ personalities and tell their stories. For example, when photographing people, photographers often give their subjects something to do with their hands–point at something, hold on to something, etc.–in order to emphasize personalities and capture the essence of their subjects.

I continue to be fascinated by the richness of this universal and yet unique language of gesture.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Alina Oswald