Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Hand it to me

Have you ever noticed what people do with their hands in photographs? The whole arm, from socket to fingertip. Not their heads, or their feet, or their jutting paunches. Just hands/arms. Most of them are at a loss. There is a ungainly shuffle after which some simply fold their hands, only to find the other three in the frame doing the same, some leave them in suspended motion so awkwardly that they feel like ropes hanging off your shoulders, which others would simply stick them into their pant pockets while the rest try to find a shoulder to hang them on. Truly, there is no good solution to this problem. What do you do with your hands when someone really asks you to stand in attention? (Isn’t that really the drill behind the photograph?) The longer it takes for the snap to be taken, the funnier your pose becomes. If you are with someone very close, use their shoulders/waists/palms to dock your hands. But that need not be the case all the time.

Actually, I found the same issue when I tried my hand at acting. I'd be on stage trying to enact a character waiting for my turn to speak my lines while the other characters ramble on. In a sudden moment of realization about where I am and what I am doing, the first thing I’d worry about are my hands. What do I do with them? If I am supposed to stand still, where should they be? I know it is not a unique issue because I have seen others struggle with the issue when I used to direct.

Random observation, but thus and no farther will my thoughts go this morning.

1 comment:

RTD2 said...

Good random thought there! I, being random and lukkha, actually thought about it, and I think it is all about being self-conscious. you're very aware of your hands/arms when you're self-conscious - photo session, making presentation/speech, meeting someone khali haath and watching them walk towards u..anything like that makes you aware that your arms are suspended in mid-air, they are attached only at one end!