4 cameras + 11 people = a snapshot exhibition on Love. This clever group of Spot Artists Extraordinaire hit the pavement with disposable cameras to show you the objects of their adoration. Perhaps you'll be inspired to grab a camera and do the same.

Carol Parden
I looked around the house for small things that had meaning for me. Most everything I photographed has been with me for a long time--my rubber ducky, the little people (Santons) from Provence that I take out every Christmas, my little Eiffel Tower. (Until I get to Paris it has to take the place of the real one.)

Jenny Gillespie
It was a blizzarding day when I was given the camera for my assignment on love. As I trudged through the sheets of white fluff, my Chicago neighborhood was serene and silent. Upon opening the door to my apartment, I relished the warmth and familiarity of my space that I share with my boyfriend, Andrew. I took a picture of a Mexican folk art sculpture of a papier-mâché heart we had bought together on a romantic trip to Tulum in the Yucatán peninsula last Christmas, and then I took a picture of Andrew pensively studying something on his computer. He is always working extremely hard on his Web site to make a lovely life for us and provide us with shelter from the storm, a space where our love comes first before all the other fretting of life.

May-May Sugihara
I immediately thought of my daughter, who is an immense source of joy in my life. My second thought was “food,” because I love food--eating it, cooking it, sharing it with others, reading about it, and ogling it, not necessarily in that order. I’m pretty sure all of the pictures I took had something to do with one or both of these topics.

Cindy Pineo
Since photography is a visual medium, I think I unwittingly interpreted the assignment as photographing something I love to look at. I snapped homely, familiar items that please my eye--a peeling painted chair, the brick wall I see from my office every day, some winter squashes. I may not cherish the squashes or the brick wall in a general sense, but I love how they look. The exception is my cat. I just plain love him.

Liz Huyck
Will they think I’m weird if I don’t photograph any people? Plato says people are defined by what they love. Someone made this garden out of a vacant lot; I love that. How can you photograph love, anyway? Love isn’t a static thing; it only has meaning unfolding in time. I can’t take a picture of history. But look, here’s rust. Think about time when you see that. When you love something, you take time to look at it closely, slowly. Love is in the details. So a picture of details is a loving picture. I can try to make the picture remind you of the way you look at things that you love. But I can’t really take a picture of why I love it. You’ll see what you bring to it; your love, maybe. Now my picture is part of time, too; by taking it I have made a declaration of love that binds me. So it’s a picture of that, too. 

Amy Tao
All my photos were of my family and things that remind me of them, because family = love.

Carolyn Corona
I was handed a disposable camera on the day I had to finish up my Christmas shopping, so I took the opportunity to wander around Chicago, keeping an eye out for things I loved (or just really, really liked) and things that represented love to me. In some ways it was a lot like picking out presents--I’m not the type of person who makes detailed lists of what I intend to buy; I just form a general idea and then hope something jumps out at me at the store. Of course, it would’ve helped if it hadn’t taken me until midway through the project to figure out that I needed to be using the flash. Thanks for letting me participate in this—I really enjoyed it.

Robin Muccari
I think artist statements are overrated and I hate writing them because most people don’t pay attention to them anyway. And even if they do, they look at them for about ten seconds. 

Kristen Scribner
We received the cameras around the winter holidays--one of my favorite times of year. So, it was easy to find stuff I love, whether it was snow on the trees, toys under the Christmas tree, or chocolate treats with sprinkles.

Hannah Kim
“Love is everywhere.”

Once you start looking at things differently, that is with love, you will soon notice that love indeed is everywhere. It’s not really important whether you loved it or not previously. Everything has its own value that is worthy of love, and it’s the matter of looking at things with the eyes of love that allows you to see it. And as I was taking snapshots of things around me, that was what I wanted to show. Picture frames are always rectangular in any camera, but I wanted to add another frame that is in a heart shape to convey my mind-set. Whatever it may be that goes in the frame of love, it becomes love.

Elizabeth Preston
For the assignment “Something You Love,” I knew right away I had to photograph my teddy bear. Her name is Theodora (I’m sure my parents thought that was very clever of them), and she’s been with me since birth. She doesn’t fill the same role in my life as she did when I was, say, six or seven--she no longer participates in imaginary scenarios with other stuffed animals, or sits on the sofa with me when I’m sick, or soaks up my frustrated-little-kid tears. Her nose isn’t soft like it used to be, since I long ago rubbed it down to the plastic. But she’s earned a permanent home in my bedroom and as a Thing I Love--even if the loyalty on her end may be due to nonmobility.

Kerri Mommer
My turn with the disposable camera was a twenty-four-hour period that fell in the middle of a workweek during the winter. It was completely dark outside when I got home from work that day, so I looked for possible subjects indoors. I shared my assignment with my eleven-year-old son because I knew he would enjoy it. He quickly snapped pictures of the objects in his room that represented his favorite sports and hobbies.

When he passed the camera back to me, I said, “Hold still. I know one thing I love that I want to be sure to photograph.” My son’s expression in the photo I took at that moment reveals a mixture of pleasure and embarrassment. Thinking about what I like or love led me to take pictures of a (1) vegan cookbook and some vegan muffins that a friend gave me because I love to cook and bake and read cookbooks, and (2) a Scrabble board game because I love board games, especially word games such as Scrabble. These photographs did not turn out well due to the poor lighting and the limitations of the disposable camera (as well as the limitations of the photographer!). The next day I took a walk on my lunch hour and photographed a building in Chicago that I found to be architecturally interesting. The weather was very cold, and the streets and sidewalks were covered with dirty snow and ice. Perhaps I was influenced by the weather conditions, but I didn’t find very much that I liked on my walk. The time constraint was what made this assignment most challenging for me.