Images of HANDS AT WORK make up the smallest section in this gallery of photogrphs of hands, simply because I do not have many opportunities to photograph people as they are working. But I managed to pull out a few without compromising on quality and this section has nine images spread over eight pages.

One small compromise I made, however, was in the inclusion of this image, taken durng a trip to Burma (today Myanmar) in 1985. It shows a noodle seller mixing noodles with her hands. Strictly speaking, this is not a "photograph of hands" as it shows a lot more than just the hands. In fact, there are four people in the photograph!

But since the hands are the main focus of interest, I thought it justified. In any case, I rather like this image showing hands that feed us. And I am all for open and creative, rather than strict and narrow interpretations of themes:

One reason why I was able to put together a fair number of images of hands for this section was because I had the opportunity to travel at end-2008, making a trip each to Beijing and Tokyo. Three of the nine images came from my Tokyo trip.

Another was from a trip to Pakistan back in the 1980s, when I was a journalist with Business Times. Most of my images from that trip were lost or thrown away, but I was lucky to have kept a photograph of a carpet maker's hands.

Among the few local images is this one, showing the healing hands of my osteopath friend. I rather like this for the way the hands point in three different directions - two down, one left one right:

Click here for more images of hands and previews of this book, which I posted at JPG Magazine.