©Matilde Viegas, Holding, Porto, Portugal

– I feel whole, ever expanding, reaching you.

Happy Valentine’s Day!  Sending love and appreciation to our readers and wishing you a day filled with roses and hearts and candy and kisses. Many thanks to Lenscratch Editor Grant Gill for compiling this two part post and to all the photographers who shared who and what they love.

©Graham Wiebe, Chantel and I, Winnipeg, MB

– You said, “I can see you in my bed”

©Suzanne Révy, Ladders, Carlisle, MA

– A rare moment when the ones I love the most sat still long enough for a photograph! Love to you all! xoxo

©Page Perrault, Untitled, Athens, GA

©Ellen Feldman, Couple in a Paris Café, Paris, France.

©Daniel Duarte, Mom and I, Boston, MA

© Loretta Ayeroff, The Cage of Alzheimer’s, Los Angeles, CA

©Julie McCarter, Sanctuary, New Orleans, LA

©Nikki Gardner, Portrait of David, Williamsburg, MA

– I remember falling in love summer 2003. The pink flower, Yo La Tengo show in Denver, basketball during the Summer Writing Program, nights when you came into the restaurant where I worked for dinner, the old Pentax I taught you how to use, listening to vinyl records in your basement apartment, the night before you left on a plane.

©Pablo Charnas, I love you, Poland, Cracow

©Andi Schreiber, Anita’s 80th, Boca Raton, FL

– Mom, I am truly blessed to have you in my life. I love you beyond. 

©Heather Lewis, The Beginning of Something, Atlanta, GA

©Souki Belghiti, The Drown Portrait, Morocco

– Sometimes, I wonder who you are.
Dangling in front of me, but not quite within reach.

©Ellen Cantor, S Freud, Chicago, IL

©Richard Skoonberg, First Bath, Lawrence, KS

©hannah kozak, Sarah & Feijoa Tree, Los Angeles, CA

©Emily Larsen, untitled, Shelter Island, NY

– A cool spring in the scorching wastelands of societies expectations of young women, you embrace your own inherent worth and trudge your own path.

©Tay Sanders, Bathtub, Seattle, WA

– For Lo,
To whom I owe the world.

©Barry O’Connor, Untitled, Beacon, NY

©Serge J-F. Levy, Consistency is not a human trait., Tucson, AZ

©Sabrina Henry, Into Darkness, Vancouver, BC

©Natalya Reznik, Looking for my Father, Perm, Russia

©Marcin Kaliński, Lovers, Gdańsk, Poland

©Sarah Midkiff, White Tail, Richmond, VA

©Blake Lewis, lost in you, Brighton, United Kingdom

– Tangled in the sheets in the morning sun, I got lost in your glow. I’ll never want to leave or let it grow dim.

©Eric Bailey, Head in the Clouds, Grand Canyon National Park, AZ

– You are a true companion, making my life an endless adventure.

©Lauren Giebitz, A Love Letter to San Francisco, San Francisco, CA

– To my City by The Bay, I miss you always. A warm smile, and yet here I stay, as you pass me by, on your way.

©Susan Rosenberg Jones, Second Time Around: Taste, New York, NY

– Joel, I’m always ready for a taste of you.

©Isabella Sommati, Love Letter, France

©Michelle GD, His Glasses, Purcellville, VA

– For seeing me. And for letting me see you. 

©Lawrence Schwartzwald, A Crack Salesman, New York, NY

– I Love this Bookseller on Columbus Avenue, reading one of his own books for sale (July 2001), for many reasons, but especially for being the impetus and inspiration for The Art of Reading, a photo essay, my collection of candid images of readers.

©S. Adam Cook, Hidden Face or (Manner of Operating Modern Portraiture), Lafayette, LA

– To a genuine muse, a genuine sentiment. Merci beaucoup.

©Todd Davis, Chimera 479, St Louis, MO

– Just cold gems set in memory
Of the one I used to love

©Venelina Preininger, Lost valentine, Tokyo, CA

©Ralkur Ulfbjörn, Alessandra, Ringling College of Art & Design

©Carl Shubs, Modeling, Los Angeles, CA

–I love street photography, which is what this photo is: a captured moment, unposed and unstaged. This is life as it happened that day at that place.

©Andrey Raychev, Reach, Vama Veche Romania

©Mark Pariani, Lover’s Lock, St. Augustine, FL

©Jeff Dietz, Mom Apple Picking, Stow, MA

©Frankie Suzanne Garr, Hands of Love, Kajjansi, Uganda

– Love holds us and takes our hand . I will hold your hand and  love all of you.  I wish to always feel the warmth of your love and caring hands protecting me as I hold you close to my heart from now until the end.

©Rusty Weston, Baker Blues, San Francisco, CA

– Can’t believe you’d ever dance with a guy in a tank top. But I know you’d tease him about it for a zillion years to come.

©Travis Gordon, Pregnant Ballet, Los Angeles, CA

-An image that embodies everything that I love about my wife, best friend and soulmate.

©Linda Kessler, right after I tripped, I looked up, and there were these children, Burlington, VT

©Vicki Hunt, New Orleans, Heaven and Earth, New Orleans, LA

– Since 1967, I have loved you New Orleans! From the North Shore to the French Quarter, and from Camellia Grill, to the 9th Ward, I consider you magical, mysterious and personal.

©Jan Arrigo, West Rigolets Lighthouse, Lake Pontchartrain, New Orleans, LA

©IrinaGlik, On waiting, Belmar, NJ

©Eileen W. Cho, And Still I Rise, Flayosc, France

– Dearest Anthony,
Thank you for being my muse.
Love always, Eileen

©Roddy MacInnes, Catriona, First Photograph, First Love, 1964 and 2016, Oban, Scotland

– 2016, Catriona, my first love, holding a photograph I took of her in 1964. It was also my very first photograph, Oban, Scotland.

©Monica Orozco, Self Portrait/Be Mine, Los Angeles, CA

©Stevie Deale, That Moment, Coventry, UK

– That moment where I knew I’d fallen in love with you, this was it. 

©William Poole, Corey, San Francisco, CA

©Kristin Linnea Backe, Skin, Oslo, Norway

– You give me tulips to photograph. For the first time I feel loved, safe and happy. We met, after a few hours you gave me a key to your flat and I stayed. 

©Sean Justice, Untitled, Oakland CA

-Fearful of your departure, desirous for your arrival. My best friend, I am truly yours. 

©Maria Gracia Inglessis, Routine, Merida, Venezuela

–This is a love letter to my dad. Dad, I find it adorable how you have this routine to hang your vest on this lamp every 2 weeks.

©Grant Gill, Its just a glow (IV), Milwaukee, WI