ROCHESTER, N.Y.-George Eastman House is extending by one month the exhibition On the Other Hand: Bill Viola and Classic Photographs of Hands. The exhibition, originally scheduled to close this week, now will be on view through June 26. The extension is the result of the exhibition’s popularity, and the welcome surprise to visitors that Eastman House is featuring a Bill Viola installation.

Video pioneer Viola has been called "the Rembrandt of the video age." Viola’s lyrical video installation, titled "Four Hands," is the centerpiece of the exhibition. It is displayed alongside other images of hands by photography masters, such as Eadweard Muybridge, Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray, Edward Steichen, Imogen Cunningham, and Edward Weston.

"On the Other Hand represents the Eastman House’s commitment to new media and our unrivaled ability to contextualize it within the entire history of photography," said Dr. Alison Nordström, Eastman House curator of photographs and curator of the exhibition. "Bill Viola’s ’Four Hands’ reflects the continuity of our interest in the hand as an artistic subject, as well as in technical developments that today permit new kinds of art making."

This survey of 30 photographs is drawn primarily from the George Eastman House permanent collection of photographs featuring hands, from early X-rays and images of hands at work, to formal artistic treatments. Georgia O’Keeffe’s hands are captured on film by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, while Shaquille O’Neal’s large hand was captured by Richard Chapman. Other hands featured include a child holding a doll; a hand petting a dog; a man playing a violin and another playing billiards; dessert being served and potatoes being peeled; and hands focusing a camera lens.

"Active, expressive, and subtle, the human hand is rivaled only by the face for its multiplicity of meaning and possibilities," Nordström said.