It’s a Thin Line between Love and Hate — United Photo Industries’ two-part photo invitational exploring the twinned themes of Love, Hate, and the rugged terrain between them.

Welcome to the second edition of “It’s A Thin Line Between Love and Hate” — our photographic homage to February’s emotional roller-coaster.

Few emotions garner a more passionate, more guttural reaction in each of us than love. Except perhaps for hate. And yet, which of us could give an unequivocal definition of what each of these emotions stand for; how they manifest themselves; or even why? Expressions of love take many forms, some of them saccharine, some violent, even repulsive to the eyes of society. To paraphrase the age-old adage, one man’s act of love, is another man’s manifestation of hatred.

On the surface, love — and its flip side, hate — might seem simple subjects to capture. 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. So, how do you capture such an ill-defined buffer zone separating two strong, conflicting passions? As submissions rolled in, we were exhilarated to see the kind of images our fellow artists had conjured in their quest to define these blurred emotional states.

The photos that comprise these twin exhibitions successfully navigate the worlds of love, hate, and the rugged terrain that lies between them.