Double Exposures: Hands

Alrighty here is the final part of my darkroom project from last semester (here's parts one and two if you're interested). These four pictures are a mini extension of my project, where I tried to communicate emotions through body language. Since these images were some of the last ones I shot, I wasn't sure where I was headed with this theme, but I think that some of them are the most meaningful of the bunch as a whole. With shooting this project I never knew what would come out of the roll, either I wasn't sure if the film would align or the two images would blend well together, I think these images feature the surprises I received when I developed the rolls.

While I was looking at my contact sheet I discovered that these two images formed a diptych of two hands growing out of a barrier. So this double exposure actually consists of four images. I really love how this image turned out, how the arms are extending out of each other and how every time I look at it I'm forced to think about what it could mean. 

This is an instance in which the film didn't align as I shot it through the second time. With this image I like that the hand over the tree is barely visible and that the hand grows from the tree. I once heard somebody say that they are a tree, meaning they are growing inwards and outwards, and I think that description summarizes what this photo means to me. And heres a fun fact about this image: the hand and the tree required different exposure times (6 seconds and 12 seconds respectively), and you can tell how unsteady hands through the black line from trying to dodge the hand... working in a darkroom is hard (but it's worth it!

-Jessica