I have been taking photographs of gloves since 2000. Time spent on job sites is especially satisfying as ideas and drawings are becoming architecture. When I discover the gloves, I see evidence of craftsmanship and effort. Humans have built structures for thousands of years, and more often, we see the result more than the process. In many ways the process is more exciting than the final structure because process is where we discover and learn. Architecture is constructed by hand. Without my friends in the construction trades, architecture would only exist on paper.

—Rand Elliott, FAIA, guest editor of Contract's July 2008 issue