Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands 1918

Alfred Stieglitz made this photograph of Georgia O'Keeffe's hands sometime in the earlier part of the 20th century. It's an intimate portrait, the soft sepia tones giving it a kind of timelessness. The texture in this piece is all about subtlety, a gentle play of light and shadow across skin and fabric. Look closely at the way Stieglitz captures the folds of her coat, the delicate bones in her fingers. There is a tenderness in the way that the light seems to cling to the curves of her hands, which are intertwined and almost shielding her chest, that gets at something very vulnerable. Her hands speak to the act of making. They tell a story, not just of Georgia, but of the artistic process itself. In a way, they remind me of Rodin’s sculptures of hands – fragments that somehow contain a whole world of emotion and expression. Art is an ongoing conversation that transforms as it passes between the hands of those who create and those who observe.