While photographing surgical procedures at the University of Chicago Medicine, Porter-Woodruff became increasingly interested in the expressive and functional capacities of the human hand.

In the operating room, the hand exists at the intersection of science, technology, and care.This experience became the foundation for Working Hands, an ongoing photographic series exploring the hand as a site of cognition, emotional articulation, and creative production. Through portraits of basketball players, chefs, artists, and others, Porter-Woodruff considers the hand not simply as a physical tool, but as an extension of the human experience.

Working Hands ultimately reflects on the unseen forces carried through our physical gestures and actions. Each photograph becomes a meditation on the ways our hands translate what is within us into the world around us.

Rollers, ‘23, 24×36 ed. 1/1