24 Hour Project Completed: Focusing on Hands
As I had previously announced, I took part in the 2025 24HourProject in Connecticut. The organization, which centered this year’s effort on raising money for Médecins Sans Frontières to support children in conflict zones set up the high task of making $10,000 for the cause.
Having so many people unwilling to be photographed, and realizing that street photography possibilities are not that easy in Connecticut, I decided to focus on hands, because people didn’t mind to have their hands shown on social media.
At the same time, I felt that I needed a theme, and since Connecticut is mostly dead in the middle of the night, documentary images were not going to be so available for me.
Instead, conceptual photographs, focusing on a specific aspect of human (and animal) life, not only opened some doors, but also gave me purpose, forced me to be more creative with my angle and composition, and made my posts uniform and unique.
So, I spoke to a lot of people, from friend reunions to local businesses, to make sure their hands were captured and displayed on my socials. I also had some of my students participate, but due to ethical reasons, I do not follow or visit their profiles.
My targets were mainly my friends, and their pets, a couple of friends who are contractors, the owner of Kismet Co. (a store in Collinsville), the waitress who brought me lunch at LaSalle Market, the bartender of Lyme Bar % Grill in Avon, the workers of a threading salon in Meriden, a bear (yes, a bear and one of its paws) and myself.
As usual, taking and posting photos for a whole day is exhausting, but doing it is always rewarding if it is for a good cause.
I took little naps, and since I was always on the move, there were moments when it was impossible to post: getting stuck in traffic leaving Meriden due to an accident on the highway, having bad connection at one of the places where I was trying to post, waiting for the right moment to take a photo, and other factors kept me from actually doing it at the exact hour. However, my goal, which was to be able to make 24 posts in a 24-hour period, was completed.
It was again an honor to be part of Photographers for Social Change, making a difference with out cameras in a world that needs good deeds now more than ever.
