‘Unseen hands’
Matthew Raffaele and his wife, Emily Powell, were sitting on the back porch of their Peters Township home when a thought occurred to them.
“We always sit on our back decks and think, how can we save the world,” Raffaele said. “We both work with the homeless, so we came up with the idea of doing a project called ‘Unseen Hands.'”
Not only did the project bring awareness to the plight of the homeless, but it also captured a photography award in a contest sponsored by the Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center.
Along with his job at Greenbriar Treatment Center, Raffaele is an amateur photographer. Powell is a nurse at a clinic embedded in a low barrier shelter and in Street Medicine at Pitt. Raffaele accompanied Powell on Street Medicine rounds and from there, “Unseen Hands” was born.
“We both felt that hands displayed the struggles in life that could otherwise be hidden,” Powell explained in a contest submission to the Carnegie Museum. “These are unseen hands in our city.”
Raffaele gave $10 Giant Eagle gift cards to those who were willing to let him photograph their hands. It was a way of giving something to those who participated even if the project never got off the ground.
“I did a test shot of about 10 people at one of the encampments down in Pittsburgh,” Raffaele said.
Seeing the pictures created a rush of emotion for the pair.
“We had asked each participant to arrange their hands, over their face or just their hands … or however they felt seen but unseen,” Powell said. “Each photograph was more raw, gritty and emotionally charged than the next.”
An incredible scene unfolded the day after the pictures were taken.
Powell, a 1996 graduate of Peters Township High School, returned to the sight of the pictures for medical duties and noticed the aroma of food.
“As she walked up they offered her a plate of food,” Raffaele said. “She asked what the occasion was, and someone said, ‘We were so honored that you guys wanted to do a project with us and you gave us something.’ Each of the $10 people took their gift card to Giant Eagle and bought food and had a cookout.”
At that moment, Raffaele knew he had to do the project.
“This is exactly what I wanted this project to become,” he said.
So the 1998 graduate of Upper St. Clair High School eventually took pictures of the hands of 50 people, giving each a gift card purchased with money the couple had set aside to take a trip for their fifth wedding anniversary.
“I wanted to do a gallery,” Raffaele said. “I wanted to find somebody who would take my photos just to raise awareness and some money. We were going to donate a lot of the proceeds to Street Medicine at Pitt, which we are continuing to do.”
Their work captured first prize in the “Envisioning a Just Pittsburgh” contest, sponsored by a number of entities including Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh and the August Wilson African American Cultural Center. The contest is described on the Carnegie Museums’ website as “an inclusive call for art that encouraged artists throughout Southwestern Pennsylvania to share their visions for a just and equitable Pittsburgh.”
A key ingredient of the display is the inclusion of the Memorial Wall near Grant Street in Pittsburgh, which bears plaques with the names of those who died while experiencing homelessness in Pittsburgh. The award-winning picture taken by Raffaele is the display of the 50 hands to the left of the wall and a tent.
“We felt the inclusion of this wall displayed the stark reality of the challenges, harsh realities and bitter ends of those experiencing homelessness,” Powell said. “Through Matt’s vision, utilizing the 50 individual photographs displayed the continuum from the levity of life on the left to the humbling dark reality on the right of the continuum with the Memorial Wall.”
Each of the 50 pictures of hands, plus the final picture, are on display at the August Wilson Center through March 30. A reproduction of the main photo at the wall also is on display at the Carnegie Museum.
“When we were talking about getting galleries, I thought I’d like to be in the Carnegie Museum,” Raffaele said. “Well, I ended up in the Carnegie Museum and I ended up in the August Wilson Center. It’s beyond my wildest dreams. It feels like a big honor to have my work displayed, to have people feel something and not just look at it.”
A homeless person who was a subject of one of the pictures came to the opening of the display on Feb. 20.
“He looked at all the pictures, found himself and sat there in awe,” Raffaele said. “That, to me, was the greatest thing.”
A cash prize of $2,000 was awarded, and Raffaele said the money was used to purchase 76 pairs of boots, which Powell has been handing out during weekly visits to the encampments or while working at her clinic.
“We got some really good boots,” Raffaele said. “People have been extremely grateful. They tell her they’ve never had a pair of brand new boots. We bought a lot of different sizes and they got to choose what fit them properly. We’re very, very proud of what little we have done with the homeless.”
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