A Lifetime of Hands

Nieuwe Emmasingel

You can read so much from someone’s hands. Do you ever find yourself doing that? Staring at someone’s hands and imagining an entire life story behind them? We certainly do.

What do the skin, the crooked joints, the faint lines reveal? Are they true working hands, or rather untouched and pristine? By placing hands so clearly in the spotlight, you as a viewer become acutely aware of your own pair. Take a moment to see what they might have to tell you.

Toos Nijssen has been fascinated all her life by portraits—of faces and of hands. In her search for diversity and personal expression, she encountered 43 pairs of hands in this series. The portraits were made with residents of the Vitalis Care Center in Gestel in 2017. She spent two months working in her traveling studio, a container set up on the Vitalis grounds. Young and old alike came by to participate in her project A Lifetime of Hands. Residents, their children, and even grandchildren visited the temporary studio and sat in a chair with their hands placed on a cushion. Toos started the camera and stepped outside. It was a deliberate moment for her models to reflect on the recording. They remained in the chair for 5 to 10 minutes, from which Toos selected one minute for her portrait. Together, all these videos form the work A Lifetime of Hands.