Hands I und II allows its viewers to comprehend how a plain object placed between camera and television is all that is needed to fundamentally influence the images: Franz Buchholz, holding the camera upside down in his left hand, places his gesticulating right hand in the space between the devices. Doubled, the fingers meet as black silhouettes and between them there opens a rich play of colors. Other changes are generated when the artist steps closer to the screen and occasionally swings the video camera ever so slightly, whereby the early video camera’s noticeable sluggishness shows how the image first has to construct itself. The respective lighting also has a decisive influence; here Buchholz makes do with a focusing lamp. Subtly attuned to the nuances of the changing colors, the sound contributes considerably to the distinctive impression. Described as “visual audiotapes,” multimedia works like these are important contributions to synthetically generated pictorial documents. Only the early video technology allows these kinds of interventions and manipulations; it requires, however, the technical skill of an expert and the daring to experiment without the certainty of a specific outcome. Buchholz’s early work shows that, as an artist, the electronics technician is as skillful as he is carefree when using whatever technology is available.