EVIDENCE OF LOVE ON PLANET EARTH

ABOUT THE PROJECT: We all want to be loved––it’s built into our DNA. Along with the need for food and shelter, love, or the lack thereof, is clearly the main driving wheel of civilization and the arts. No matter how cool or important you are, how hip your clothing, friends or hang-outs, deep down you want to find and connect with that one person who will make life worth living. You just do.

Some say that every film is a variation on one of only six or seven themes from life. Most of these themes center on love––the loss of love, the triumph of love, the betrayal and deceit of false lovers, and so on. We need love so badly that we often trivialize that need until it becomes a trite subject, masking the pain of such a profound and crucial component of our human psyches.

These images were pulled from my work going back 30 years and show moments that reflect a fundamental aspect of being alive: the act of loving another human being. Love and lust are intertwined, and there are consequences to both, of course. Seeing the photographs selected by Karen Mullarkey around this theme from my archive was a wonderful revelation in that I found I’ve been particularly alert to love in its various manifestations over the years. I guess that makes me a voyeur.