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Read the press release here.

DUMBO Photo Gallery Explores the Line Between Love and Hate

By Janet Upadhye | January 3, 2013 8:44am

DUMBO — Like many married couples, Stephanie Diani and her husband had fights. It was during one "especially enthusiastic quarrel," that Diani first thought about killing her husband. Those murder fantasies inspired her series, "Scenes From a Marriage."

"Instead of stabbing him to death I decided to do a photo project," she said.

Diani's staged images of a housewife who dreams about killing her husband and sleeping with the gardener were chosen in 2012 for DUMBO's United Photo Industries show called “It’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate.” A year later, the small gallery is reincarnating the exhibition, giving a new flock of photographers the chance to explore "the twinned themes of Love, Hate, and the rugged terrain between them."

Show curator Sam Barzilay received submissions from more than 600 photographers last year. He chose 40 artists for the exhibit, including Diani who’s “photographs stood out as a brilliant and quite literal depiction of the gray area between love and hate,” he said.

And according to Barzilay, the show was a hit.

“We had to do a repeat — it is so interesting to see how photographers choose to capture the nuances of love and hate,” he said. “They have lot of creative freedom in this show.”

United Photo Industries’ Creative Producer, Dave Shelley originally came up with the idea for the show that, according to Barzilay, was a response to Valentine’s Day and people’s strong emotions around the holiday. He wrote, “Our daily lives are filled with mundane declarations of love, and mindless acts of hatred. But love and hate run deep. Look beneath the surface and you will often discover them masquerading as each other.”

2012's images included portraits of old married couples, soldiers holding hands, and images of the KKK. “It’s a Thin Line Between Love and Hate 2013” has already received several submissions.  

But Diani will not submit this time around. And this year she celebrates her 10th wedding anniversary.

“No one has gone to the hospital and no cops have been called,” she joked. “We are doing well.”

The photo submission deadline is Jan. 14 and the winning images will be displayed in the gallery during the entire month of February. LOVE opens Friday, Feb. 1, with HATE directly following on Feb. 14.