The Hands of Labor

Photographs by Damon Winter Text by Binyamin Appelbaum, THE NEW YORK TIMES Sept. 6, 2020

This article is part of "The America We Need," a Times Opinion series exploring how the nation can emerge from this crisis stronger, fairer and more free. Read the introductory editorial and the editor's letter.

HELEN KELLER WAS A CAREFUL STUDENT OF HANDS. Blind and deaf, she apprehended the world through her hands, and she took the measure of other people through their hands. She read in hands what others read in faces.

Mark Twain’s hand, she wrote in 1905, “is full of whimsies and the drollest humors.” Other hands were more surprising: “A bishop with a jocose hand; a humorist with a hand of leaden gravity; a man of pretentious valor with a timorous hand.”

Indeed, Keller said hands were more honest than faces: We may compose our faces, but our hands speak open and unconscious truths. Keller could feel the differences others see, as between the soft, lacquer-tipped hands of a banker and the rough, oil-stained hands of a mechanic. But she found deeper manifestations of character in the movement of hands. “I have clasped the hands of some rich people that spin not and toil not, and yet are not beautiful,” she wrote. “Beneath their soft, smooth roundness what a chaos of undeveloped character.” Hands were windows on the soul.

The hands here tell the stories of American workers. We see both commonality and diversity. Everyone works with their hands, and their hands testify to the nature of their labors.

Nurse,
21 years

Valerie Wilson is a registered nurse and clinical coordinator at Cayuga Medical Center in Ithaca, N.Y., where she has worked for 21 years.

 

Furniture finisher,
27 years

Vasily Livitskiy has worked finishing furniture at the Stickley furniture factory in Manlius, N.Y., for 27 years.

 

Chef,
6 years

Lisa Heidelberg is the head chef for a personal chef and catering service that she has owned and operated for almost six years. Ms. Heidelberg has been cooking for her family as a single mother for over 20 years.

 

Equipment operator,
15 years

James Russell has been working at an Amazon distribution center as a trainer/specialist and industrial vehicle operator for three months. He has operated industrial equipment such as forklifts for the past 15 years, most recently for DHL and The Limited.

 

Auto mechanic,
45 years

Craig Odell has owned and operated Total Auto Care in Homer, N.Y., for 45 years. He does much of the mechanical work himself.

 

Housekeeper,
3 years

Maria Buck has been working as a housekeeper at the Holiday Inn in Binghamton, N.Y., for three years.

 

Banker,
22 years

Justine Baker has been in banking for 22 years and recently began working as vice president of Ohio State Bank, a new financial institution in Ohio.

 

Designer and student,
1 year

Quhan Knight was in his first year at Pittsburgh Technical College studying design when his school closed because of the pandemic. He has transferred to the Erie Institute of Technology and is starting his own business doing graphic design, music videos and photography.

 

Salt miner,
4 years

Devon Luoma has been working at the Cargill Salt Mine in Lansing, N.Y., for four years. He is on the crew that maintains the mine shafts, including a nearly 100-year-old timber-supported shaft.

 

Steelworker,
11 years

Ron Salazar received fourth-degree burns on his right hand, chest and leg in an accident while cleaning a coke oven door at the U.S. Steel plant in Clairton, Ohio, in 2017. He has gone through several rounds of surgery and has been on disability for over three years. Mr. Salazar worked for U.S. Steel for 11 years.

 

Technician,
5 years

Robert Mitchell Jr. worked at the General Electric factory in Erie, Pa., for five years before he was laid off. He worked as a casino slot machine technician and then a car wash maintenance technician. He fell and injured his ankle and has been on disability for over a year.

 

School bus driver,
14 years

Onna Jean Votra has worked as a bus driver for the Homer Central School District in New York for 14 years. She has also run a custom embroidery business.

 

Painter,
36 years

Resean Hues has been working for two years as a painter with Flatiron Management in Ithaca, N.Y. He has been painting since he was 15 years old.

 

Barber,
47 years

Musa Peterson has been cutting hair for 47 years. He recently started working at Supreme Cuts in Ithaca, N.Y.

 

Meatpacker,
46 years

Larry Brannon bought the Owasco Meat Company in Moravia, N.Y., in 1974 when he was 26 years old after graduating from Cornell University’s agriculture school. He has been packing meat there for 46 years. Mr. Brannon handles retail meat packing as well as slaughter and processing services for area farms.

 

Unemployed,
1 year

Mikel-Bryan Ott is unemployed. He was in his freshman year at Gannon University, studying accounting and sports management, when the pandemic closed the university.

 

Gun toolmaker,
13 years

Jeffrey Madison has worked for 20 years for Remington Arms, a gun manufacturer in Ilion, N.Y. He started as a machinist and has worked for the past 13 years as a toolmaker, making the fixtures and gauges used in the manufacturing of intricate parts.

 

Carpenter,
21 years

Jason Wiley has been a member of the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters for 21 years and has been pouring concrete since he was 13 years old. He teaches concrete form construction at a training center in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Sharpener,
17 years

Mike Kent is the knife and tool sharpener at River’s Edge Cutlery in Hilliard, Ohio, which he has owned and operated for 17 years.

 

Coal miner,
27 years

Chuck Burgess has worked as a coal miner for 27 years, doing almost every job at the mine over the years. He currently works as a mechanic for Cumberland Coal Resources in western Pennsylvania, his employer of 11 years.

 

Farmhand,
9 years

Fredy Velasquez has been working as a farmhand at Fouts Farm, a dairy farm in Cortland, N.Y., for nine years.

 

Farm owner,
25 years

Paul Fouts is the third-generation owner and operator of Fouts Farm, a dairy farm in Cortland, N.Y. He joined a partnership with his parents as a co-owner in 1995.

 

Courier,
15 years

Donte Allen has worked as a courier and assistant manager with Fedex for the past 15 years. In normal times he works three other jobs: as an English teacher at a Chinese school, a charcuterie chef at a farm-to-table restaurant and a logistics manager at a Japanese electronics company.

 

Software professional,
25 years

Purba Majumder has been a software professional for 25 years and has been the president of Cybervation Inc., a software development, I.T. and medical staffing company, for 10 years. She is the founder of CoolTechGirls, a nonprofit that encourages girls to pursue interests and careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

 

Massage therapist,
4 years

Sarah Jones , a mother of four children, has been working as a licensed massage therapist at Rasa Spa in Ithaca, N.Y., for over four years.

 

Apprentice carpenter,
1 year

Josh Warren is in the first year of his four-year carpenter apprenticeship through the Indiana/Kentucky/Ohio Regional Council of Carpenters. Mr. Warren entered the program straight out of high school and specializes in concrete form construction.

 

Cosmetologist,
16 years

Thao Ly Pham has been working as a cosmetologist for 16 years and currently works at a nail salon in Canandaigua, N.Y. She also travels around the country teaching nail care techniques.

Damon Winter is a staff photographer on assignment in Opinion.

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