Valentine's Day Sucks

Postmarked February, 1995


Image scanned courtesy of H&V

Photographer: Michelle Smith-Lewis
Concept: Julia C. Tenney

The story behind this really begins sometime around January 1991. A number of us were snowed in, getting drunk on all the stuff we refused to drink on New Year's Eve. At some point we began to spell things out with candy "conversation" hearts, particularly "LET'S GO" "BAD BOY" "LOVE" "MY MAN".

Nearly four years later, on New Year's Eve, I finished a roll of film with a few quick, unfocused frames of candy hearts that were similarly arranged, perhaps out of some drunken nostalgia?

When I developed the fuzzy photos I decided to reshoot them as Valentines. No one ever seems to get enough mail on February 14.

The day before that photo shoot, we sorted through at least 3 bags of candy hearts. We could not find a single "LET'S GO". First we came up with several other slogans. Then a couple of the guys started scraping off letters to get "SURF LOVE" and "EAT" "ME". Eventually they began writing their own words. I now wonder if a certain someone isn't simply obsessed with the concept of suck.

Arguably the best of the 60+ final photos is the one pictured above. At the time, I found the reference to NIN quite novel. My friends rolled their eyes. I offered it to the rest of the NINternet.

Infinite Halo, which prior to this point had only been a phrase carved into the grime on my white van in lieu of an actual bumpersticker, had begun.

There is no relation to www.suck.com, but folks there enjoyed reading about this card.

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Updated: February 1997 tenney.org