I've seen lots of beautiful photos of hands, but how much of that beauty comes from the hands themselves, and how much is being imposed by the artist's choice of pose, lighting, and color? To address that question, I decided to let the hands speak for themselves, leaving myself out as much as possible. I captured some basic attributes of each volunteer's dominant hand (its appearance, its texture, its temperature, its degree of moisture) and a sample of the handwriting the hand produces (the person's response to the question "What do your hands say about you?") To some degree, this was done with tongue in cheek -- clearly, the beauty of a hand doesn't lie in those surface characteristics -- and yet hints of individual essence do indeed come through. (Or perhaps I'm just projecting my own emotions, since my process of gathering data included a fleeting moment of connection when I held each person's hand.)