Hands appear everywhere in advertising. Flip through any magazine and you'll see them flaunting watches, washing dishes, stroking faces. Hand modeling is a real job done by professional models, which makes you wonder who they are and what they look like. Oli Kellett and Alex Holder introduce you to some of them in their wonderful book Hand Jobs.
The idea came to them while shooting a commercial in 2012. They spotted a petite woman wearing enormous gloves while reading a paperback. It turns out she was a hand model, protecting her hands. "The image just stuck with us," Kellettsays.
With that, the duo went to Hired Hands, an agency in London. They convinced 24 models to pose for portraits and hold a banana in a suggestive manner, an idea that lends the series a certain cheekiness (and required buying dozens of bananas, raising eyebrows at the supermarket). Each model offers an insight into their unusual profession. One man, for example, followed his father and uncle into the business. Others went into modeling after repeatedly hearing they have lovely hands.
No matter how lovely their hands, agencies subject a model's mitts to rigorous inspection under a magnifying glass. And of course they need different hands for different jobs. Long, slender fingers are best for rings, because they make diamonds look bigger. Strong, masculine hands are perfect for power tools, firm handshakes, and other manly things. Although many models appear in advertisements, some land roles as doubles for the likes of Kate Moss and David Attenborough.
If you think the job sounds easy, try spending nine hours finding innumerable ways of holding a Twix bar. Beyond the tedium lies discomfort, as maintaining a pose strains muscles and patience. "They were keen to stress that holding a necklace for four hours in the same position is quite painful," Kellett says.
The last thing a hand model wants to do is injure their hands, so they take meticulous care of them. They moisturize obsessively, and, like that woman with the book, wear gloves everywhere. Vigilance is key. "I don't play with kittens, I don't smoke roll ups, and I don't change bicycle chains," says one model.
No bike chains and no cigarettes? No problem. But no kittens? Being a hand model is tough work indeed.
