The Hindu Business Line : All for love, love for all

This French writer-photographer couple are on a journey around the world to record a 1,000 gestures of love. Their project, called `1000 gestes d'amour,' is a photo story about the many facets of love — love in a family, affection between friends, the love in a marriage — and the joy that love creates. "We wanted to show something positive, that people are happy and the best way to show that is to capture a gesture of love," Sabine explains. So while Mickael captures expressions of love with his camera, Sabine interviews people to gather their opinions on love.

They expect to complete the first leg of their journey by September and will then hold a series of exhibitions of their work.

Besides photographs, the exhibitions will also include a segment in which children express their thoughts on love through drawings and poems, Sabine says.

Eventually, they also plan to publish a book on 1,000 gestures of love, while the Web site (www.shootinglove.com) will serve as an online record of the project.

Over the past six months, the couple has travelled through Morocco, taken a train ride through Russia, Mongolia and China, and visited several Indian cities, including New Delhi and Mumbai.

And in the course of this journey, they have learnt that love has different meanings and is expressed differently around the world, Sabine says. Affection between friends is, for instance, important across the world.

Yet, in some places it is more "tactile" than it is in others, she explains. Similarly, the love between a husband and wife or in a couple is expressed very differently in different parts of the world. In Morocco, there are no open demonstrations of love, while in Russia "it's like an exhibition," Mickael says with a laugh.

"In India, we found that love within the family is very strong," Sabine says. So, affection for children is expressed very openly and strongly unlike in some other countries. However, in the case of love within a marriage, it is not expressed so openly, but that is also changing slowly, she adds.

From Thiruvananthapuram, Sabine and Mickael travel to Sri Lanka and on to other parts of Asia and South America, ending the first leg of their trip in Cuba. Later, they also plan to visit North America, Africa and parts of Europe to round off their quest for a thousand gestures of love.