The next time you see David Attenborough holding a rare snail to camera, hit pause on the close-up - that might be Paul Tennant. Kate Moss holding a handbag? Really "hand supermodel" Nina Taylor. Welcome to the surreal world of hand modelling. "I think people are quite fascinated that, as a job, it even exists," says photographer Oli Kellett, whose new book Head Shots of Hand Models, co-written with Alex Holder, goes inside an unusual industry. From cosmetics to smartphones ads, hand modelling is big business - though the models themselves are rarely seen above the wrist. "If you make it to the top, there's a lot of money there," says London-based Kellett, 32.

The book puts faces to those fingernails, and reveals the surreal demands of the craft - from nine-hour chocolate-bar shoots to the Zoolander-esque lengths gone to preserving delicate digits (no smoking or playing with pets; always wear gloves). "Burning your hand on the oven is the end of the world if that's your income," says Kellett.

He shot each model holding a banana, chosen for its flexibility ("There wasn't an erotic undertone planned," he says), and in close-up, which proved surprisingly challenging. "They've never had portraits of themselves," says Kellett, "so it was an awkward process. It was quite amusing, actually."

Head Shots of Hand Models (Hoxton Mini Press) is out on May 16

This article was originally published by WIRED UK