Differing arrangements and collations of photographs allow spectators to fill in the blanks between images, forming their own narratives from their fragments. First Hand’s curation forms a non-linear ‘stream of consciousness’ narrative selected from hundreds of photographs as it turns its lens on subjects’ hands, the work’s single common thread. This work expresses how when individual images are removed from their original context, they form alternate micronarratives within their original, overarching one. Narrative threads fuse together in First Hand, offering both chronological continuity and fragmented history. A juxtaposition forms between the once subjective photographs as they become objective and create their own new connections to one another.

This work regards the physical photograph as an affectual object; something to be gently and lovingly caressed, or desecrated and torn brutally. It is interested in the relationship a hand and a photograph share, both holding the capacity to physically depict love and violence, while reflecting on the fact it is the photographer’s hand taking these images of people embracing, healing, or holding their phones.

Snapshot photographs illustrate personal firsthand narratives, yet carry a collective sense of shared grief and love. When removed from their context, these images create new meanings, convey collective experience and incite reflection as they form historical links. Nova is interested in how cultural narratives arise out of personal histories, and whilst her work is intimately autobiographical, it echoes emotion and experience collectively understood, blurring the distinction between the private and public.