Pointing The Finger
Not blaming you, just want to show you this salad.
👉 Today
Pointing a finger to draw your attention to something is pretty universal. Even babies and dogs do it. But it has become a bit of a stock image joke. There are even stock images available where someone is pointing at nothing so you can lazily insert anything into the void.
These examples and plenty more at Getty
It's especially prevalent in office and computer situations where there is really no action to be had. At least faxing used to be a physical activity. Pointing stands in for action, concentration, collaboration – hey, I am 👉 showing you something important here. It stands in for all the things happening inside the computer box or inside someone's head. Pointing can be accusatory, but is generally used in this more benign way.
It's hard because how in this computer age do you show what office people do? They are sitting and typing on keyboards which does not have much range. It's a good question that I have not yet solved. But we need to figure out something better than pointing a finger. I'm asking for a new perspective on computers in photography. And there are other ways to draw attention to something in a photograph by using framing or lighting or composition (re: salad image).
👉 Historically
A pointed finger in print to direct attention goes pretty far back. It was used very often in advertising through the Victorian era.
digit 2. the printer’s symbol. This type ornament has a long history, the printed outline of a hand being used as a paragraph mark by, among other early printers, Huss at Lyons in 1484 in the edition of Paulus Florentinus’s ‘Breviarum totius juris canonici’ he printed with Johannes Schabeler. As with other typographic conventions this was taken from scribal practice, carefully drawn hands pointing to a new paragraph being found in early 12th century (Spanish) manuscripts. It is also known as a fist, hand, or index. – G. A. Glaister’s Encyclopedia of the Book
I also saw it referred to as a "manicule." More examples here including some very odd hand creatures. Medieval times were weird ya'll.
I have a great book called Postures, Body Language in Art which I thought surely would have some great examples from the art world. Not so much. Artists, using things like the aforementioned framing or lighting or composition, etc. don't have as much need to direct your attention to this paragraph or this fabulous offer. There were a few examples of accusatory pointing or using the hand to make a gun shape. The image at the top of the page was in a section called "Making a Face."
👉 And Back Again
And you can see the modern manicule as emoji in the headers of this article. We're still using this idea of pointing to draw attention. Although the emoji use expands the meaning in conjunction with other emoji. Just learned that 👉👈 indicates shyness. Which once I thought about it makes sense. And 🫵 definitely feels accusatory, or at least a stronger statement. However, via Jennifer Daniel: "Backhand Index Pointing Down (👇) gets used a lot by people who retweet “THIS” lol."