The Moscow museum of modern art is putting on an exhibition called “speaking with hands”.  It looks at the history of photography from the first black and white negatives of the 1840's to the Polaroid camera.

Former photographer and owner of the collection, Henry Buhl, has accumulated more than 1000 items over ten years. He says that through using his hands he can speak to anyone. It is a universal language that everybody understands.

Henry Buhl used to be a wedding photographer until he inherited a considerable amount of money. One of the first things he bought with it was a photograph, the first in his collection. It is extremely important to him and even though he has been offered a lot of money for it he'd never sell it, as it represents the centerpiece of his passion.

Henry Buhl believes that a hand photograph is the best portrait of a person because of the expressive quality of hands.

The exhibition will run until May 2007.