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Since its launch in 2015, Subway Hands has grown to nearly half a million followers as of September 2025.
The account has earned Hannah La Follette Ryan not only a devoted online community but also opportunities far beyond the train itself—most recently, she covered the hands of guests at New York Fashion Week from the front row.
The project began when La Follette Ryan moved to New York City straight out of college.
“I had a 45 minute commute to my day job as a nanny, which taught me that public transit is the perfect place to people watch,” she told Kinn.
“Most riders have a guarded facial expression, distracted or withdrawn, but I learned that hands are their tell. People fidget, self-soothe, crack knuckles, crochet, shadow box—on the NYC subway, you see it all,” she explained.
Armed with her iPhone, La Follette Ryan started taking candid photos of passengers’ hands. It became a habit, and soon she was sharing them on Instagram.
Her initial inspiration came from a portrait of Georgia O’Keeffe by Alfred Stieglitz.
“[O’Keeffe’s] hands take up most of the picture,” she told Vice. “Their pose is sensual and dramatic, more expressive than her face. Hands are weird. They operate reactively and on instinct. Mostly we let them do their own thing. I think they can be our most honest feature.”
But her fascination with hands goes back even further, to childhood.
“I loved holding hands with my grandfather and my dad. I noticed the difference in the texture of our skin, evidence of the life they lived before me,” she told Kinn.
“Hands are expressive and central to how we navigate the world. Hands can be elegant, sculptural, odd-looking—their versatility has held my interest for the last ten years,” she added.
Helen Rosner of The New Yorker noted that through La Follette Ryan’s lens, the pictures of commuters’ hands are as “intimate and readable as faces,” maybe even more so. And it’s hard to disagree.
“Especially in a public space, faces can be guarded and inscrutable,” La Follette Ryan said. “Hands are expressive and reactive in a way that often feels more honest. We reveal a lot about ourselves through our nervous tics, the tension in our hands, our subconscious gestures.”
Her photos now encourage others to notice strangers’ hands, too. Many people write to tell her that, and even as someone who already loved people-watching, I’ll admit her account has made me pay closer attention.
The project’s success was gradual, but La Follette Ryan believes it resonates because of its interactive nature. Public transit is a shared experience, and she’s even seen riders scrolling through Subway Hands while on the train themselves.
