Love is that emotion you can never control; it comes slowly and all at once. Growing up, I always dreamed of being in love—the type of love that never dies, even when death finally does come. I wanted stories of my love for others and from others. Loving always came easy to me and sometimes too easy, ending in heartbreak and questioning "true love." I seemed only to think that love comes from a significant other. From movies to books to even the expectations of society, I believed that only the best type of love was from a partner.
As I got older and experienced different kinds of love, I indeed found the beauty within it. You can receive love from your family, friends, strangers, and even people you don't get along with. Love is in different forms and can be shown in various ways. Some people fear love because of how vulnerable you must be to receive it, but that's the best part. Being open with someone and sacrificing yourself for another is the ultimate gift. It's a feeling I don't think I'll ever be able to put into words. But it is a feeling that you can feel forever. In other words, it never dies. While you can move away from a person, grow separately, or even lose feelings for them. That love will always be there and is not necessarily a bad thing. Love is meant to teach and allow you to grow as a human. It teaches you lessons despite the good or bad outcome. Love can sometimes be something you hate, while you can never get enough of it at other times. No matter what, it will always be there, even if it is just through memories.
For my submission, I wanted to create a photo series that may hold these memories. I wanted to show different types of love between pairs. While some are friends and some are strangers, they have individual stories of love. Some might have great stories, while others may have troubled ones, but they all choose to be in love, accept it, and hold onto it. And while these picture-perfect moments might fade in real-time, we will always have those memories and feelings deep down until the day we die. And no one will ever regret a piece of it because it made them who they are today and beyond.
Throughout my process, I took pictures in North Carolina and New York, where I traveled back and forth. While some of these photos were candid, others knew the photo was being taken. But people were never posed or asked to be or do something; it was all natural and real. I wanted these to make even strangers happy and show pure, contagious love even if you have no idea who is in the photo. Each photo makes me smile and appreciate the love I have in my own life, and I wanted to make this series to spread it to others.
