Valentine’s Day – Photographing Love

Happy Valentine’s Day! Today, in particular, most of us celebrate love…or maybe lack thereof. But how do we, creatives, define love (or lack thereof) and how do we express or capture love in our work?

That depends on what kind of art form we use to talk about love. The first thing that comes to mind is poetry. Then, maybe movies.

As photographers, we can be more or less subtle when capturing love, and also when capturing certain facets of love.

Let’s start with “can’t buy me love,” the price (or price tag) of love. That inspired the image below. Also, I’d like to add here that love might not be something that one can buy, but that doesn’t mean that love doesn’t come at a price, one that might have nothing to do with money.

Love comes in different forms. It is the reason for fighting for a cause–a love for animals, for a significant other, for the environment, or for peace comes to mind. At times, love becomes the cause, the reason to fight. And that takes me to the fight for marriage equality. A few years ago, when marriage equality became legal in the state of New York, I came up with an image I then called Love 4 All. That year, Love 4 All became part of the Fresh Fruit Festival art show at Leslie-Lohman Gallery in New York City.

But as I have already mentioned, love comes in all shapes and forms. More often than not, as photographers, when we think of photographing love, photographing engagements and weddings might come to mind. After all, many marriage proposals happen on Valentine’s Day. So here are a few images of couples in love, embracing on the sundial, on the Jersey City waterfront, or at the edge of a tunnel, in Central Park.

There are couples who travel in style, and also those who’d rather enjoy a walk on the beach, barefooted:

There’s also an ‘edgier’ side of love, one that intrigues us, in particular as artists and our work. The two images posted below are part of one of my body of work still in progress.

There is also the love for our work–for the craft itself when it comes to creatives. Some of us a…obsessed with our work and with the causes we’re trying to support through our artwork. That kind of passion, that kind of love allows us to put our hearts and souls into whatever we create, and try to make a difference.

So, I hope that love and understanding, and passion, too, are all in the air today and every other day.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

As always, thanks for stopping by!

Alina Oswald