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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Forty-Four: Photographing human response – gesture, body language, and expressions > Nomadic hands, Sahara Desert, Morocco, 2006
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19-DEC-2006

Nomadic hands, Sahara Desert, Morocco, 2006

I made this image a few moments after the preceding picture. The hands of the woman seen in both of these images have known a hard life. Yet there is much grace and beauty in how she uses them. (That is not polish on her fingernails. The red color is from henna, which is rubbed over the hands.) She was obviously getting accustomed to our presence. She unfolded the scarf that had veiled her face, and lets it fall around her shoulders. As she handled it, I made this image. We don’t see much of her face here – I let her hands speak for her. There is gentle, caring, graceful quality to her gesture.

Leica V-Lux 1
1/400s f/5.6 at 43.9mm iso100 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis01-Jul-2007 20:02
Thanks, Marisa, for seeing still another dimension to this image -- the effect of stopped motion. Yes, the image is static, but our imaginations see an ongoing moment. She is in the process of doing something that required hand movement, and the camera has symbolized that process by freezing the hands in a particular relationship. And yes, that relationship is best defined by the word "grace."
Guest 01-Jul-2007 13:35
I think that even the way she moves (although this is a static image, I can imagine her moving) is integrated, blended with the desert and its own time... grace is the word that can describe her.
Phil Douglis29-Jun-2007 19:29
Well put, Marisa. The desert speaks here through its colors. Her skin, the scarf, even the henna on the nails, reflect the nature of sun and sand. And even the name of her tribe -- the "Blue Men" -- refers to the deep blue desert sky.
Guest 29-Jun-2007 00:26
what catch my eye here is the uniform color on both the clothes and the body of this woman, the color of the desert and the sun reflecting... a true integration of human and enviroment.
Phil Douglis16-Jan-2007 05:46
Thanks, Tim -- as you say, it is the fingernail polish, a universal symbol of beauty, that plays against the beauty of the colorful fabric and gives this image much of its expressive qualities.
Tim May16-Jan-2007 04:26
And the coloring of the nails speaks of holding on to beauty.
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