Sara Black in love with love

MANILA, Philippines - It is a universal theme, but one constricted by views on what is right and proper.

Love is at the core of fashion photographer Sara Black’s newest coffee table book We, Love. Featuring extraordinary couples connected by different forms of love –– between parent and child, between two friends, between siblings, between life partners –– We, Love explores the complexity of love, in how it is expressed and how it changes the people who give and receive it.

Black, who is a member of Canon Crusaders of Light, a group of professional photographers and videographers, says she was mindful of maintaining the authenticity of each relationship in the images she captured. Her photographs aren’t about presenting photogenic moments of love, such as the kind that is seen on Hallmark cards, but showcasing the different aspects of it, even those that are uncomfortable or even painful to dwell on. “I just hope that the readers’ eyes haven’t become callous to real life and that they can see the beauty in things that are not literally beautiful,” she says. “That they can see beauty in dysfunction, beauty in a person’s capacity to stretch beyond themselves to accept the other despite their differences or shortcomings, despite what society dictates is acceptable, and even being able to overcome time and space.”

Love colored by loss, hurt, hope and selflessness –– the book also serves as a reflection of how conventional beliefs can restrict what is supposed to be the encompassing of love. Black explains, “We, Love isn’t only about how the pairs interact with each other but how we as a society view how people love each other with our own prejudices –– to the point that, perhaps in some portraits, the viewer wouldn’t know whether to empathize or be upset with a couple. But there is still the hope of being able to get rid of prejudices or at least being more open to not judging how other people love.” In the end, love will always reign supreme.

YSTYLE: How was the idea for We, Love developed?

SARA BLACK: In all honesty, the idea for the book came about because in some ways, I felt that my eyes were beginning to get callous. When you do photography editorially or commercially, you’re constantly exposed to the most beautiful things on a literal level: the most beautiful and most handsome celebrities, the prettiest dresses, the most extravagant jewelry. My eyes were looking for something else to see because there must be more to life than those. And in my quest to be inspired, it was always a recurring idea: Love, in its reality, inspires me. And so that is what I wanted to discover.

When did you start planning the concept for the book and the production period for the content?

I actually had the very seed of the idea for this book when I finished my first book When I Look in the Mirror in 2009, but it needed some time to simmer. It was always in my thoughts, but life has to happen and like so many other people, I got caught up doing other things.

Then in 2010, I seriously considered beginning the project and started to see how I could actually get it done, since producing a book needs proper financing. It took a while, about two years for things to finally get off the ground. I had already begun shooting a few pairs to have something tangible to show those who I wanted to ask to get onboard with the project. But it would come to a standstill then start again then stop.

While I was looking for a way to publish it, the idea of the book became firmer and firmer in my mind. I was then able to iron out a set-up with Central Books, where we would co-publish the book: I would take care of the production and they would take care of the printing. So things were finally about to fly. I started researching on people to feature during the latter part of 2011, then the serious work came the following year.

How did you select the couples that are featured in it?

I know some of the people featured in the book personally and I have always been inspired by their stories, even if I never voiced it to them until I asked for their participation. I also came up with a list of possible pairs in certain scenarios that I would like to photograph. I put a lot of thought into how their stories would bounce off each other to create melodies and harmonies. After all, the strength of this book is in the stories of the pairs as a whole, not so much as individual stories.

Another thing I was really mindful of was to get a good mix of subjects from different walks of life, because this reinforces that at our very core, we are all the same in the ways that we love. I’m also in such a fortunate position because having photographed some of the most high-profile people in the country, it really enabled me to make this equality come out. There are subjects from politics, entertainment, amd society, all carefully selected to create this resonance that I wanted.

Was it easy to convince them to be subjects?

Honestly, I did get a lot of “no’s.” And I totally understood because I’d be putting a person’s life on the page. That’s why I’m so fortunate that those who said yes allowed me to capture them in all their honesty and authenticity. How often can you meet someone and, in 10 minutes, they open their life to you? The process really recharged my belief that people can be good.

How did you find those moments that captured the essence of these couple’s relationships? How did you direct them? Did you let them ease into a pose or position naturally?

They were all photographed in an environment they are natural in so that helped a lot in keeping things real. While the photographs are posed in the sense that we set up the situation for the subjects, I didn’t direct them. I just photographed what was there. And to be honest, in some cases, I was looking for something specific and would get frustrated that it didn’t come out. But in hindsight, it all worked out perfectly because in the end, there were nuances that only the subjects could make come out, which would not come out had I directed them, and they strengthened the authenticity in the photographs.

Did it feel intrusive at times, seeing a couple interact and be intimate and open to each other?

Yes, it did feel intrusive at points because it all was so personal. It didn’t even have to be a romantic pair, like when I photographed Jericho Rosales with his grandfather. I actually cried after the shoot because I had never felt so much authenticity between two people I’ve photographed. They told each other verbally, “I love you,” and men don’t usually do that.

Which was harder, capturing the images or writing about your subjects’ relationships?

Writing about them was more difficult. I suppose because I take photographs every day for a living, at some point it’s already like breathing; that’s how natural it is. But to write on a page a person’s life, I was really mindful to keep it real and not inject my personal opinions into what they said. That’s why the text is all quotes strung together: it’s really the words coming out of their mouths, like the reader could be there at that exact moment.

What did you learn from making the book?

I can really say that I’ve grown tremendously as a person. The life stories that these people have shared with me are maybe 10 years’ worth of life learnings compressed into a year and a half. I can’t really qualify it, but I know I’m different now. It’s more than I would’ve ever learned in the four corners of my studio.

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We, Love will be available at Fully Booked stores. A portion of the proceeds from the book sale will go the Fully Booked Foundation advocating literacy for children.