Probably just a general hand gesture. Might have been trendy at the time. Basically just a way to symbolically REACH the audience.

It was probably a meme with photographers back then. Or they went with same guy

it was handy

They were casting spells of welcoming. Like "Welcome to my Freak Show, it's time to jam" because Silverchair was the opening band

GET THAT CAMRAOUTAMAFACE!!!

i feel like deep down i know the answer, but i can't put my finger on it. any of them for that matter.

I was there and do not have an answer for this.

Speculation: maybe we got better lens/DSLR tech or something that enabled crazy-sharp photos with a very big depth-of-field, making shots like this possible when they weren't before? Seems like a lot of trends like this are actually just creatives gleefully rushing into whatever new territory just opened up. Blue LEDs are a great example of this.

This was a few years before sunglasses and a hallway of lights so they had to figure out how to make the photo weird enough to remember but not full of strange poses. Wizard casting hands is just right.

it's the "reaction face in youtube thumbnail" of its time.

My theory is it was an extension of the fish eye lenses use in music videos. Back then they were pretty ubiquitous and carried a certain’We’re bad-ass’ connotation, and for a music album cover, this was the type of one frame that could capture the essence of that.

Someone must have started it somewhere.

That time period was defined by fushigi skills.

why do all the kids these days look like broccoli? ... no fuckin' idea ... they just do...

I'm pretty sure its this.

Usually this was paired with a fisheye lens to give that 'IN YO FACE!" look that was so aggro-cool at the time.

I'm guessing they used the same photographer or something

When was “talk to the hand” a thing? Barely remember.

Serious answer: To prove they are real. In the early 2000s generative AI wasn't advanced and struggled to generate photos of people with correct number of fingers.

Because you have something on your face. It's right... Here, lemme get it for you.

It is an obscura sign by the deep state, that together with the Illuminati and the shadow patriots leverage the power of culture manipulation to change people's brainwaves so they buy more ice cubes, eventhough they are perfectly capable of making them at home.