of black chiffon, but they are saved
by the tiny needle pinched between
her left thumb and forefinger. The
needle is the sign of industry and of
life; it also signifies, as if we could not
already tell, that the hands are female.
Besides collecting, Buhl strives
philanthropically
to
help
the
disenfranchised; it is fitting that the
photograph which set in motion
his whole collection shows hands
as instrument of an artistically,
domestically
and
erotically
empowered woman, a photograph
made just two years after women
won the right to vote.
Edward Steichen
J.P. Morgan, Esquire
1903
In Edward Steichen's 1903 portrait
of J.P. Morgan all is darkness out
of which only the banker's face
and left hand emerge, the latter
tightly gripping a scepter-like object
(a cane, a chair arm?) The hand
underscores the imperiously dour
persona registered by the face. In this
photograph the pocket watch is the
punctum, a golden talisman shining
in the darkness, symbolic of the gold
coveted by the clenched hand.
HYLAND
