PICTURES OF LOVE

 PICTURES OF LOVE

What image would you choose to depict love? Perhaps a mother gazing intently at her newborn child, or a couple sharing a tender moment on their wedding day?   Couple who married 70 years ago and stayed so in love that they held hands every day at breakfast die 15 hours apart Helen and Kenneth Felumlee wed in 1944 The pair had eight children and remained deeply devoted Kenneth died 15 hours after Helen passed away on April 12 A couple who held hands at breakfast every morning even after 70 years of marriage have died 15 hours apart. Helen Felumlee, of Nashport, died at 92 on April 12. Her husband, 91-year-old Kenneth Felumlee, died the next morning. The couple's eight children say the two had been inseparable since meeting as teenagers, once sharing the bottom of a bunk bed on a ferry rather than sleeping one night apart, the Zanesville Times Recorder reported.   In this picture taken in September 1941, Kenneth and Helen Felumlee pose nearly three years before their marriage in February 1944 When Helen Felumlee passed away at the age of 92 Saturday morning, her family knew her husband Kenneth Felumlee, 91, wouldn’t be slow to follow her. The couple couldn’t bear to be apart very long, and Kenneth passed away only 15½ hours after his wife of 70 years. “We knew when one went, the other was going to go,” said daughter Linda Cody. “We wanted them to go together, and they did.” After Kenneth had his leg amputated 2½ years ago because of circulation problems, Helen became his main caretaker, making sure he got everything he needed. She continued this up until three weeks before their deaths, when she became too frail to care for him. “She was so weak, she could hardly do it,” Cody said. “But she was still pushing his chair; she was still filling his water cup.” When Kenneth’s health started to fail, Helen began sleeping on the couch to be near him. The two hadn’t slept apart in 70 years, the family said. Years ago, when the two took an overnight ferry equipped with bunk-beds, they chose to both sleep on the bottom bunk rather than be separated for even a night. Soon after Kenneth, Helen’s health also started to go downhill, and she was confined to a hospital bed near the end of her life. Kenneth took this particularly hard. “He would just reach out and grab her hand, but he would keep his head down because he couldn’t stand to see her hurting,” Cody said. Upon his wife’s death, Kenneth was ready to join her, family said. “She was staying strong for Dad and he was staying strong for her,” Cody said. “That’s what kept them going.” Helen and Kenneth’s love story began when they were just 18 and 19 after Kenneth’s ex-girlfriend, a friend to Helen, introduced the two. They immediately hit it off, dating for three years before deciding to elope. Lying to their parents, the two said they were taking a day trip to Kentucky to visit Kenneth’s old basketball coach. Heading to the courthouse with only $5 in their pockets, Kenneth and Helen arrived with barely enough to pay the $2 fee. The couple were wed Feb. 20, 1944, two days before Kenneth was legally old enough to get married. “He couldn’t wait,” son Jim Felumlee said. When the couple returned, they were too nervous to tell their parents right away, so they lived separately several weeks until Kenneth developed the courage to break the news of their elopement. “I would have liked to have been there for that conversation,” Cody said. The Felumlees, who celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary in February, died 15 hours apart from each other last week They remained deeply in love until the very end, even eating breakfast together while holding hands, said their daughter, Linda Cody. 'We knew when one went, the other was going to go,' she said. According to Cody, about 12 hours after Helen died, Kenneth looked at his children and said, 'Mom's dead.' He quickly began to fade and was surrounded by 24 of his closest family members and friends when he died the next morning. 'He was ready,' Cody said. 'He just didn't want to leave her here by herself.' The couple remained deeply in love until the very end, even eating breakfast together while holding hands The pair had known each other for several years when they eloped in Newport, Ky., across the Ohio River from Cincinnati, on Feb. 20, 1944. At two days shy of his 21st birthday, Kenneth was too young to marry in Ohio. 'He couldn't wait,' son Jim Felumlee said. Kenneth worked as a railroad car inspector and mechanic before becoming a mail carrier for the Nashport Post Office. He was active in his Nashport-Irville United Methodist Church as a Sunday school teacher. Helen stayed at home, not only cooking and cleaning for her own family but also for other families in need in the area. Kenneth and Helen pose in their later years, surrounded by their eight children She taught Sunday school, too, but was known more for her greeting card ministry, sending cards for birthdays, sympathy and the holidays to everyone in her community, each with a personal note inside. 'She kept Hallmark in business,' daughter-in-law Debbie Felumlee joked. When Kenneth retired in 1983 and the children began to leave the house, the Felumlees began to explore their love of travel, visiting almost all 50 states by bus. 'He didn't want to fly anywhere because you couldn't see anything as you were going,' Jim Felumlee said. Although both experienced declining health in recent years, Cody said, each tried to stay strong for the other. 'That's what kept them going,' she said.   +10 Wedding photo: This stunning photo has been submitted to the latest National Geographic photo assignment which has been posted at its online photo-sharing platform Your Shot Enlarge +10 Priceless moment: 'What's more precious than capturing the love of mother and children in one shot?' asks photographer M. Drey +10 A group of children watch as a walrus performs and then waves to them in this photo by Brenda Sutton The latest theme is Love Snap and appropriately enough it started on Valentine’s Day. ‘Welcome to the month of love. Now is the time to turn words into images. Don’t tell us who or where or what makes your heart sing—show us,’ writes National Geographic. ‘Photography is a powerful voice for all things, physical and metaphorical. How can the people and things you love be expressed with light, movement, and color? We challenge you to go beyond the saccharine-sweet clichés and show us the intimate and personal aspects of your ideas on love. 'We tend to be casual about using this powerful word, so stop for a moment and consider what love actually means to you. Now is the time to turn words into images. Don’t tell us who or where or what makes your heart sing—show us. +10 Angel: 'I was walking in the famous neighborhood of Fatih, Istanbul, Turkey when I saw an 'Angel' in the middle of the street. The man was waiting for somebody who never shows up,' writes photographer Boryana Katsarova   The latest National Geographic theme is Love Snap and appropriately enough it started on Valentine's Day and runs for a month +10 'On the banks of the Ohio River, the Kentucky side, I watched as the shifting ice, momentarily formed a heart ringed in blue,' writes photographer Danielle Mussman +10 Photographer Hadi Asgari took this photo of his grandma and young cousin 'Photography is a powerful voice for all things, physical and metaphorical. How can the people and things you love be expressed with light, movement, and color. 'Your images can be superreal or dreamlike, journalistic or imagined; they can speak to a person or to a moment in time. We challenge you to go beyond the saccharine-sweet clichés and show us the intimate and personal aspects of your ideas on love. 'Elevate us. Surprise us! Inspire us with what you love, and we'll share it with the world.' The assignment runs until March 7 and anyone can submit photos of the people and things they love expressed with light, movement and color, images that capture the beauty and wonder of L-O-V-E. To see more images or participate, visit Love Snap. +10 How would you encapsulate love in a photograph? Here's Bernard Jacques submitted effort +10 Two butterflies mating are captured in this photo by Andrey Antov +10 'Shot this at home... tuberose or "rajnigandha" what a lovely fragrance, writes photographer Shivam Misra We tend to be casual about using this powerful word, so stop for a moment and consider what love actually means to you. Now is the time to turn words into images. Don’t tell us who or where or what makes your heart sing—show us,' the magazine challenged its readers.

What it got in return was a stunning collection of photos.

'Amid the torrent of babies and puppies, we applaud those of you who refreshed the clichés,' the magazine said of its reader-provided collection. 'You brought the romance back into the 1950s American wedding-kiss fantasy—using the bride’s veil as if it were a filter for intimacy. We admire those of you who found the more unexpected moments of tenderness—a father releasing a bird, or a girl and her grandmother spinning in matching polka dots. And we are especially grateful to those of you who shared heartfelt stories of loss and recovery.'

Additional images can be found on the National Geographic website.

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Double rainbow: This image shows a young child jumping in puddles following a storm in the Arizona desert

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Wedding photos: The photographer says 'I composed and shot this during the early morning hours [a] few days prior to the couple's wedding'

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Morning: The photographer says 'love comes in many forms and a peaceful morning can be full of it'

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Family: The photographer captured this candid image of her cousins playing with their children as she was getting ready to go to a concert

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Grandma: This image shows a little girl named Maja imitating her grandmother as they dance in the lawn

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Baby: Cecelia only weighed two pounds when she was born and spent six weeks in the Intensive Care Unit as her father stayed by her side

The photographer titled this image 'Giacomo e Maria'

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Filter: This couple had the clever idea to use the woman's bridal veil as a filter on this wedding photo

SUMMER  OF  LOVE On the 44TH anniversary of the legendary Woodstock music festival, held in Bethel, New York, a series of remarkable photographs taken at the time offer a window on the landmark event celebrating music and peace. Woodstock Music & Art Fair was staged at Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm in the Catskill mountains near the hamlet of White Lake from August 15 to August 18, 1969. The festival featured a total of 32 acts, including such icons as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, Joe Cocker, Santana, and The Who, making it one of the most outstanding concert lineups in history. Peaceful masses: Overall image of the huge crowd, looking towards the large yellow tents, during the Woodstock Music & Art Fair Living arrangements: Concert-goer sleeping on two cars at Woodstock in Bethel, New York, on August 1, 1969 Wet and wild: The rain did little to deter hundreds of thousands of young people from sticking around at the festival Despite the rain which had turned the grounds of the farm into a giant mud bath, the festival drew an audience of some 500,000 people, many of whom camped out in tents and vans for the duration of the weekend. Hendrix was the last act to perform at the festival, but due to the bad weather, only about 35,000 people got to hear his psychedelic rendition of the U.S national anthem in what was to become one of the defining moments of the 1960s. The community of Bethel was not prepared for the great influx of young people from all over the country, and by August 14, much of the area had become an enormous traffic jam. Flower children: The festival proved especially popular among members of the hippie counterculture who believed in nonviolence and coined the phrase, 'Make love, not war' Signs of times: The event drew hundreds of thousands of young hippies and was marked by widespread drug use While some locals were less than welcoming to the flower-adorned, bell-bottomed, mud-splattered  hippies flooding the area, others embraced the visitors, supplying them with free food and water when it became apparent that Food For Love, the festival concessionaire, was not prepared to feed the massive crowd. Beside amazing musical acts, the weekend of peace was marked by widespread use of drugs, and the organizers of the event even established a ‘freak-out tent’ for those suffering from bad ‘trips,’ according to the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. Slip and slide: Despite the rain which had turned the grounds of the farm into a giant, filthy mud bath, the festival drew an audience of some 500,000 young music fans from across the country Groovy invasion: The community of Bethel was not prepared for the great influx of people, and much of the area had become an enormous traffic jam While some concert-goers remembered the unique historic festival as an adventure that changed their lives, others found it nothing but a messy, filthy, poorly organized fiasco. Epic: Jimi Hendrix was the last act to perform at the festival, but due to the bad weather, only about 35,000 people got to hear his psychedelic rendition of the U.S national anthem For his part, one of the LIFE photographers on scene during the festival, John Dominis, summed up his own recollections of Woodstock this way: ‘I really had a great time,’ Dominis told LIFE.com, decades after the fact. ‘I was much older than those kids, but I felt like I was their age. They smiled at me, offered me pot … You didn’t expect to see a bunch of kids so nice; you’d think they’d be uninviting to an older person. But no — they were just great!   The festival was the brainchild of Michael Lang, John Roberts, Joel Rosenman, and Artie Kornfeld, who initially designed it as a profit-making venture. In the end, it turned into a free concert of epic proportions when it became apparent that the event was drawing hundreds of thousands more people than the organizers had prepared for. Historic lineup: Young people from across the country flooded Max Yasgur's 600-acre dairy farm to catch such great acts as Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and The Who Different takes: While some concert-goers remembered the historic festival as a life-changing adventure, others found it nothing but a messy, filthy, poorly organized debacle A father's pure joy is captured on camera as he lays eyes on his baby son for the very first time

• Beautiful photograph captures Meagan Snook, 36, and her husband Lee O'Sullivan's home birth 
• Shows Meagan cradling their son Reuben in her arms as Lee, 46, looks on with pride and relief 
• Lee said the calm birth was all the more special as their first-born's delivery had been extremely stressful  

You never forget the moment you first lay eyes on your child, but so rarely does that moment last for longer than a split second.

But one Western Australia family will be able to cherish that instant forever thanks to this beautiful photograph that was taken as they first held little Reuben.

The gorgeous picture shows Meagan Snook, 36, holding her son in a birth pool, cradling him in her arms, as her proud husband Lee O'Sullivan beams with pure joy.

It is a beautiful moment, one that is all the more special for the family as it came nearly two years to the day that the birth of their first child 

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This is the beautiful moment Meagan Snook, 36, and her husband Lee O'Sullivan, 46, laid eyes on their son Reuben for the very first time

The couple's first-born came into the world under much different circumstances.

Lee, 46, told Daily Mail Australia that he often remembers the day his daughter Alice was born as 'the best and worst of my life'. 

He was whisked away from the birthing room by midwives, leaving Meagan in a 'bath of red', before he had to hold a tiny oxygen mask to his daughter's face. 

Lee had no idea what condition his wife was in, or if Alice was going to be okay. He took a photo with their daughter before Meagan even got the chance to meet her.

It was a traumatic experience for the family, so Lee was apprehensive when Meagan first told him she wanted to deliver their second child at home in November. 

'When Meagan told me she wanted a home birth, most of what happened that day came flooding back,' he said. 

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Meagan chose to give birth in a pool at the couple's Western Australia home when she delivered Reuben in November 

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After such a chaotic delivery with her first-born, Megan wanted Reuben's entrance in the world to feel as natural as possible

'I had my concerns, but trusted Meagan's choice was the right one.' 

After such a chaotic delivery with her first-born, Megan wanted Reuben's entrance in the world to feel as natural as possible. 

Giving birth in the comfort of her own home also alleviated many anxieties, she added. 

'I did not need to worry about travelling to a hospital in labour, worry about who would look after our daughter, worry if the birthing pool would be vacant,' she said. 

'Having a home birth also reassured me that I would not be exposed to unnecessary interventions and that every effort would be made to follow my birth wishes.' 

That comfort was paramount as Meagan went through six-and-a-half hours of labour during what she calls one of the hardest nights of her life. 

But all that stress and pain melted away when Reuben calmly came into the world at just the right time. 

'There's so much unpredictability with birth, but his timing was perfect because our daughter was asleep next door,' Meagan said. 

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Her daughter Alice woke up 10 minutes after Reuben was born, and then got to meet her little brother for the first time 

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The couple's photographer also captured the touching first moment that the entire family first cuddled together 

As Meagan and Reuben first laid eyes on their newborn son, the rest of the world melted away. 

'Birth for me was such an internal experience, I barely opened my eyes,' said Meagan.

'That relief once the baby is there and you can actually open your eyes and breathe again, it's such an amazing moment.'

'When Reuben was born all the happiness, relief, worry and stress surfaced in my emotions,' added Lee. 

'Every parent I'm sure would describe the birth of their children as the most emotionally-filled day of their lives. You can add me to that list.'

Both parents completely forgot their birth photographer, Belle Verdiglione, was in the room as they stared into Reuben's eyes for the first time. 

But as they looked at her photographs, they were able to relive the beautiful and peaceful experience all over again. 

'I will be forever grateful to have these images,' Meagan said. 

'Especially seeing the facial expressions of Lee seeing his son for the first time and Alice meeting her little brother for the first time. Priceless.'  

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Meagan said the family often forgot that their photographer Belle was in the room as they melted into the moment 

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She is grateful that she will now have these touching photographs to look back on and remember how she felt forever 

Surrounded by hippies collapsed in a sea of mud, a young couple hug each other while wrapped in a bedraggled blanket. Nick and Bobbi Ercoline didn't know it, but they were about to become an iconic symbol of the Woodstock rock festival. It is now exactly 44 years since the couple joined a crowd estimated at 500,000 for the four-day event. But their relationship is still going strong. They married two years after Woodstock, have two sons and still live not far from the concert site at Bethel in upstate New York. Iconic: This image of Bobbi and Nick Ercoline, wrapped in a muddy blanket, became one of the most well-known photographs of Woodstock Phenomenal: Bobbi and Nick outside their New York home in May, 2009 Yesterday the Ercolines, both 60, returned to their field of dreams for an anniversary event which starts today. 'Who'd have thought that our 15 minutes of fame would last 44 years?' said Nick, who now works for his county's housing department. He and Bobbi, a school nurse, never intended to go to the original concert. But as the couple sat listening to the radio that weekend, the crowd swelled, police closed the roads and broadcast appeals for people to stay away. This made them determined to join in the fun. They grabbed a gallon jug of red wine, some bags of crisps, and headed for Woodstock, abandoning the car six miles from the concert and walking the rest of the way. The couple were pictured by a wandering photographer and the shot made it on to the cover of the Woodstock triple album featuring, among others, Jimi Hendrix and The Who. Nick recalls that he and Bobbi were listening to it at a friend's house when he picked up the sleeve. 'I said, "Hey that's our blanket." Then I said, "Hey, that's us!"' Peace and love: An aerial view of the concert grounds, where nearly half a million people crammed into the muddy fields for a weekend to create music history Many of the crowd at the original festival were shirtless for most of the weekend A 'Hippies Always Welcome' sign sits in a window in the town of Woodstock, New York as the 40th anniversary of the festival approached. When the novelist Martin Amis said recently that it was the sexual revolution of the Sixties and Seventies that destroyed his 'pathologically promiscuous' sister Sally, an alcoholic who died in 2000 aged 46, he provoked a wave of controversy. His views were ridiculed by his critics, who claimed that his sister 'was out of control. It was her doing, not the culture.' Well, I was part of that culture too. As a university student between 1966 and 1969, I experienced first-hand the impact of the sexual revolution, and the sweeping changes it wrought between men and women. To suggest any individual was immune from that tidal wave of change, or from the pressures that came with it, for women in particular, is frankly wrong. Free love: The sexual pressure has gone from liberation to degradation. Yet Amis has hit a nerve, with liberals in particular, who rightly read his comments as a criticism of everything they believed in and fought for through the massive social upheavals of those decades. It was not 'the free love culture' which caused her death, they insist, but her own self-indulgence. After all, we all have choices, don't we? To me, this is one of the most fascinating issues of our time - raising so many questions about freewill, and cause and effect. I'm always amazed at the way the liberal Left (a broad church, with which I'd have once identified) is eager to make excuses for any dubious results of their progressive ideas. Yet the damaging consequences of that Sixties revolution are obvious in the society we now live in - ranging from the utter mess made of education in this country (directly attributable to the overturning of traditional ideas in the Seventies, an orthodoxy which still prevails), to the dangerous 'anything goes' attitude which challenges any idea of restraint in speech or behaviour. I happen to believe Martin Amis makes an interesting case. Who is to say he isn't right and that in a less 'liberal' society his sister might have behaved differently, or might have been safer? 2009: Ladette behaviour  is a direct result of the freedom women fought for Of course any individual is a unique, complex, multi-faceted creation - shaped by family, by personal reactions to events, and by the random nature of sex and love. Nevertheless it's absurd to suggest that we exist in isolation, that we are not shaped by the culture we inhabit. The zeitgeist is the defining mood or spirit of a particular period in history and shaped by the ideas and beliefs of the time. Nobody can escape it. So Amis asks us to pose this question: what were the pressures on a particular girl - his sister - who turned 20 in 1974? And, equally important; what is the ongoing effect on the society of today? Oh yes, they were heady days, out of which many good things came. But at university I could see close-up the impact of the sexual revolution and the 'new' pressure to sleep around. It was expected; nobody wanted to be called 'uncool' or 'uptight'. People have always had sex before (and illicit sex within) marriage. You only have to think of the excesses of the first sexual revolution - the 'roaring' Twenties. But our sexual revolution was more sweeping and long-lasting. 'Health centres handed out the Pill like sweeties' The university Student Health Centre handed out the Pill like sweeties. So you wouldn't get pregnant - good. But at the same time you had no reason to be careful - bad. Most of us embraced the hippie-esque idea that sexual freedom was a beautiful thing to be celebrated. 'Seize the day,' we shouted, and threw old notions like fidelity out of the window. But beneath all those naive and high-sounding ideals, the sexism of supposedly radical and free-thinking men on the left could be summed up with: 'A woman's place is underneath.' As the writer and feminist pioneer Rosie Boycott has said: 'What was insidious about the underground was that it pretended to be alternative. But it wasn't providing an alternative for women. It was providing an alternative for men in that there were no problems about screwing around.' The artist Nicola Lane, another young woman of the age, adds: 'It was paradise for men - all these willing girls. But the problem with the willing girls was that a lot of the time they were willing not because they particularly fancied the people concerned but because they felt they ought to. There was a lot of misery.' Sex mad: A mock up of a Cosmopolitan  magazine  cover, showing cover lines from recent editions An acceptance of casual sex was central to the spirit of the age, and it was not easy for a young woman to escape that influence, whether it made her uncomfortable or not. One cultural historian of the Seventies, Howard Sounes, writes: 'The after-effects of the great social and cultural changes of the Sixties, like waves created by rocks tossed in water, rippled out through society.' Today, those of us who express doubts about the long-term effects of such cultural changes are dismissed as prudes suffering from a permanent moral panic-attack. The denial of the liberals is ongoing: a blinkered refusal to admit the causes and effects of history. But this is what the distinguished historian Eric Hobsbawm writes about the shift in standards in his authoritative book, Age Of Extremes: 'The crisis of the family was linked with quite dramatic changes in public standards governing sexual behaviour, partnership and procreation... and the major change is datable and coincides with the Sixties and Seventies.' No wonder the Seventies saw an unprecedented explosion in writing about sex. The air-brushed innocence of Sixties Playboy gave way to the gynaecological explicitness of Penthouse and a host of imitators. Sex, which in previous eras was private (even taboo), became public, with the result that women were expected - in their love lives - to demonstrate the expertise of prostitutes. Except these 'liberated' women gave it away for free. Alex Comfort's The Joy of Sex: A Gourmet Guide To Lovemaking, came out in 1972, and that same year the first issue of British Cosmopolitan changed women's magazines for ever. 'To be a nice girl was to be looked on as a freak' I was working on a glossy magazine at the time and we all looked askance at this brash newcomer with its philosophy that women should do anything to be sexy and get a man. (By the mid-Seventies, I was writing for it - although the Cosmo of those days was relatively innocent compared with now, when the magazine is often covered up in American stores because of the explicitness of its cover lines.) Books such as Cosmo's Steamy Sex Games: All Sorts Of Naughty Ways To Have Fun With Your Lover' (and countless others) carried the message that if you don't want to do this stuff, well, there's something wrong with you. To be a 'nice girl' was to be looked on as a freak. The truth was, however, the new permissiveness gave men permission to exploit you. These are the pressures which, according to Martin Amis, contributed to his sister's ruin. It may be cruel to say it, but today's young girls primping and un-dressing for Saturday night, when they will get drunk and get laid (and feel doubly bad in the morning) are the inheritors of her destiny. Bleakly, Amis commented: 'It's astonishingly difficult to find a decent deal between men and women and we haven't found it yet.' I suggest it is impossible to find that 'deal' when we are living with the worst aspects of the sexual revolution - which has not encouraged mutual love and respect between the sexes but instead has given us the trashy 'pornogrification' of our society. Dangerous: When Tom Cruise is stupid enough to permit his three-year-old to totter out in high heels, what hope is there for fans who see him as a role-model? As the young American writer Ariel Leve has said: 'Even though this new world of beer and babes feels foreign to Sixties revolutionaries, it is actually... a repercussion of the very forces they put into motion.' She's right. We did start it - and those who followed paid the price, and are paying it still. In her book, Bodies, psychotherapist Susie Orbach writes: 'Girls as young as four have been made bodily self- conscious and are striking sexy poses in their mirrors which are more chilling than charming.' The question we must all ask ourselves is - what made them so bodily self-conscious? I'm afraid we know the answer. When Tom Cruise and his wife are stupid enough to permit their three-year-old daughter to totter out in silver high heels, what hope is there for those millions of fans who see them as heroic role-models? Nowadays, parents (the ' grandchildren' of the sexual revolution) have no compunction about dressing their little girls as minihookers and taking them along to see sexually explicit acts like the Pussycat Dolls, where dancers mimic sex on stage. Those girls grow up to post pictures of themselves posing like porn stars on the internet. Indeed, a third of teenage girls, we learnt this week, text sexually explicit pictures of themselves, too. And so it goes on. 'We were conned into abandoning self-respect' Is it any wonder that the phenomenon of young teenage boys expecting their girlfriends to provide sexual gratification at any time (on a school bus, for example, according to Susie Orbach) leaves girls feeling abused and full of hate for their bodies - the very bodies so cynically exploited for commercial gains throughout a sexualised media? There is sexual pressure on women as never before and no matter how much women achieve in the boardroom or as helicopter pilots, it makes a nonsense of equality. In 2007, the American Psychological Association issued a report citing innumerable contributing causes to the sexualising of young girls, including music videos, TV and advertising. Are they to be accused of 'moral panic'? When a magazine like Zoo can run a competition in which men send in pictures of their girlfriends' breasts along with a picture of the celebrity breasts they most admire, and the prize is a remodelling of the girlfriend's to match the ideal breasts - then something is very, very wrong. The ongoing sexual 'revolution' is, in truth, as selfish and reactionary as those groovy Seventies men were, when Martin Amis's sister was young. She, like so many others, was conned by the talk of freedom into abandoning all self-respect. The sad thing is young women today are still being conned - victims of the pervasive sex industry which uses 'liberation' as a mask for degradation. A mother's love is timeless and unconditional, something which is beautifully conveyed in this series of vintage photographs. Ken Heyman, 83, captured images of mothers and their children of various religions and nationalities playing, laughing, cuddling, feeding or grooming, more than 50 years ago. Despite their differences a running theme through each and every picture is the unmistakeable maternal bond and love shared between parent and child. +13 Loving, joyful images taken in Denmark in 1964, left, and on the right, U.S.S.R. in 1963 +13 He shot the sweet images for Pulitzer-nominated book titled Family, co-authored with famed anthropologist Margaret Mead in 1965 In one, a conservatively dressed mother from the USSR teaches her toddler to ride a bike in 1963, while around the same time a mother in Denmark shares a bath time giggle with her bare-bottomed cherub. Renowned and award-winning people photographer Ken uncovered the nearly forgotten treasure in a box labelled Mothers, after clearing out his things from a storage facility. He received a call from the office of his former agent, Woodfin Camp, who said he needed to come down to retrieve some belongings from the facility which was closing. Stashed inside dozens of old boxes were hundreds of vintage prints and thousands of slides from assignments and books Heyman had undertaken throughout his career. +13 A daughter fixes her mother's headscarf in Ghana, 1970, left, and baby cuddles again in Ghana, 1964 +13 Ken captures an all-American household at dinner time, date unknown +13 Mothers carry their toddlers by their chest either wrapped in a scarf in Morocco, 1982, left, or right, perched on the hip in Egypt, 1974 He shot the black and white images for a Pulitzer-nominated book titled Family, which he co-authored with famed anthropologist Margaret Mead in 1965. Margaret had been his teacher at first, but they later wound up working together on this and other books and projects. Their anthropological collaboration is apparent in the images, as they document motherhood around the world from many cultural perspectives. Despite their age, we can all relate to the emotions shown between mother and child in the pictures - they could have been taken today and, retro fashion aside, one would be none the wiser. +13 A mother plaits her daughter's hair in U.S.S.R., 1963, left, while right, a little boy receives a cuddle in France, date unknown +13 A mother takes a snooze in the garden with her toddler in Czechoslovakia, date unknown +13 Despite their age, we can all relate to the emotions shown between mother and child in the pictures - they could have easily been taken today +13 A gorgeous pair of Brazilian siblings get their curls trimmed overlooking a balcony, date unknown A mother takes a moment with her dozing toddler in Turkey, 1964 (l) and a mum leads her little one along in Hong Kong, date unknown (r) +13 Despite their differences a running theme through each picture is the unmistakeable maternal bond shared between parent and child +13 Ken uncovered the nearly forgotten treasure in a box labelled Mothers, after clearing out his things A look held between partners, a child's adoring gaze, a hug from a stranger. The definition of love spans a range of feelings and attitudes encompassing emotion and attraction. It is used to describe an act of kindness or compassion, friendship and desire. These 10 photographs, the winning entries in the eHarmony Love Captured contest, give a glimpse of love in all its different forms. The competition was launched to celebrate the relationship site's five-year anniversary, and offered a £5,000 prize to the photo that best encapsulates love. The entries were judged by a panel of four, including relationship experts and renowned photographers. They selected the image We've Walked A Long Way Together, by Lee Jeffries as the winning photograph. He said: 'As a photographer...you just know when you've captured something special. I'm inspired by people. With my camera I delve into the emotion found on the street. Happiness, sadness, loneliness, love - it's all out there. The trick is trying to capture that. So far, I have been very lucky. It's a human photograph. It portrays genuine human emotion.' We've Walked A Long Way Together +10 1st place: Photographer Lee Jeffries, said he was confident the judges would 'feel' the emotion in his picture. He said: 'As a photographer...you just 'know' when you've captured something special. I'm inspired by people. With my camera I delve into the emotion found on the street. Happiness, sadness, loneliness, love - it's all out there. The trick is trying to capture that. So far, I have been very lucky. It's a human photograph. It portrays genuine human emotion' Innocence +10 2nd place: Joann Randles from Cardiff captured this image of a young flower girl readjusting the bride's train. She said: 'This photo tells a story, going through the generations from the oldest to youngest in a natural way you don't usually get in wedding photography. It was so spontaneous, she picked up the train of the wedding dress and I just happened to catch it happening' A Cambridge Engagement +10 3rd place: Photographer James Appleton from Kennington in London said finding out his picture had been shortlisted 'delighted' the couple. He said: 'We were actually out on a specific photoshoot - I'm a professional photographer - but this particular image I wanted to convey the feeling of having just captured the couple having a private 'in love' moment, which is something I often aim for - so it doesn't feel intrusive and is more genuine. I'm taken in by the couple's expression and body language, which stood out to me at the time' Love Ties +10 4th place: Samantha Millar from Edinburgh said photography is her passion, adding it was an honour to see her picture listed in fourth place. She said: 'I stole my boyfriends shoe to pair mine up with for the shot! I think it was noticed because it was a simple idea which conveyed the primary message of eHarmony - finding your perfect pair' Brothers' Love +10 5th place: Jolanta Macionczyk took this image, ranked fifth by the judges, for the children's grandparents. She said: 'This picture was taken for their grandparents as they live far away and don't get to see their grandchildren very often. The brothers Olaf and Oscar really love their little sister Olivia and they wanted to show it by giving her a kiss' Kiss Me +10 6th place: Piotr Lipski took this image of two friends on their wedding day in July last year. He said: 'This photo has amazing romantic ambiance which makes it unique' Love on the Tube +10 7th place: Kate Barry from Stoke-on-Trent said she has been taking pictures since getting her first camera at the age of four. She said: 'I was very excited when I found out. I've had a camera since I was four so I've been doing it all my life but I want to take it in a more professional direction soon so this has really boosted my confidence' All You Need Is Love +10 8th place: Reema Sharma from Clapham in London took this image of strangers hugging. She said: 'There was something quite unique and lovely about the moment. All those people coming together. It is also an unusual concept to be hugged by a stranger. Hugging is such an emotionally grounding thing that most of us can appreciate. I feel the image was probably quite different from the traditional perception of what love is and how it's captured. Instead of being an intimate moment of two people sharing an experience, this was the opposite - a group moment with complete strangers' My Crazy Love +10 9th place: Maresa Smith from Watford said when she discovered this photograph had been shortlisted her' heart skipped a beat'. She said: 'I was so excited when I heard - it really made my week. It was one of my first shoots and I think it's very me - I want people to smile when they see my photography' Love On A Rainy Bridge +10 10th place: Sharif Islam, from Barnet,said he was inspired by this 'demonstration of love that transcends all weather systems'. He said: 'A young couple stopping to share an intimate moment, utterly indifferent to the pouring rain, is quite a romantic, hopeful and inspiring sight. Furthermore, illuminated by vibrant city lights made it a perfect setting' http://

Couple kisses mid-handstand and a llama photobombs newlyweds in hilariously awkward family photos

Love is patient and kind according to the famous Corinthians verse, but love is also strange as evidenced by the portraits on AwkwardFamilyPhotos.com.

In addition to the run-of-the-mill awkward group shots, many have submitted their own relationship-themed photos to the site from weddings, engagements and lovey-dovey mall photo shoots.

The photos show a spectrum of weird relationships from a man biting his girlfriend's ear in one professional shot to newlyweds tossing chicken carcasses in their wedding shoot.

The photo set is hilarious, and endearing at the same time - proving even weirdos can find true love.

Thinking of you: A man gazes fondly at a projected vision of him and his girlfriend

On bended arm: Peter Parker and Mary Jane had their infamous upside down kiss. This couple has their own version

Still got it: At least he's still attracted to his wife after all these years

Tied down: He realized real quick he had to lock down this girl before some other guy snatched her up

Photobomb! Is the Llama jealous of their union?

Background: A keepsake from a day at the beach will forever be tainted by the red-shirted man

Love birds: Throwing rice, throwing chickens, what's the difference?

Pessimistic in pink: She promised it was a dress they'd be able to wear again

Fiery love: The flaming barbeque is a symbol for their passionate love

Her knight in shirtless armor: He protects her with his epic bow and arrow

Back it up: The couple that grinds together stays together

Double the love: It either depicts two sets of twins dating each other or some sort of pre-photoshop play on the image

 

Beach wedding: A union that can only be pictured against an epic background

 

 

 

It's supposed to be the happiest day of your life, so what better way to celebrate your wedding than by posing as centaurs to demonstrate your love? Or riding a giant swan? Or perhaps fleeing a fire-throwing Transformer?

From the crude, to the rude, to the downright bizarre, these Russian newlyweds certainly know how to put the fun in wedding function.

Many rely heavily on post-production, whether it's shrinking a bride or blowing up a church, while others are just forensically choreographed happiness.

And when the special day is over, they will take their places in family albums so future generations can know who their ancestors really were.

Their special neigh: This happy couple couldn't stop horsing around throughout their wedding ceremony

A rearly happy occasion: This bride needed a well-earned nap after the ordeal of getting married (apparently)

Baguette me to the church on time: This bride knows exactly which side her bread is buttered

Young love: This couple couldn't get to the honeymoon suite soon enough

Thigh do! The photographer couldn't wait to start the shoot whether the brides stockings were on or not

Holy pond of marriage: This wedding was ruined by a giant swan who swooped in and whisked the happy couple off for an early honeymoon... at their local park

Always the bridesmaid: This bridesmaid was keen to show her frustration at never being the centre of attention herself

Some seem to be the newly betrothed wife seeking to show who is the boss after the nuptials.

Cars feature strongly - in one picture the couple's faces are superimposed on the wheels as they begin the journey on the family road to happiness.

To have and too cold: This bride has her husband wrapped around her little finger

Stupid's arrow: This bride was more concerned about snaring herself a groomsman than she was about her dress

Wee do: This photo raises more questions than it answers

The first chance: It wasn't long before this couple sneaked away for a bit of alone time

Who says a can of lager and a cigarette or putting a chair between your legs isn't classy?

Wedding cows: The groom at this wedding wanted nothing more than to celebrate by climbing a giant bull

Not now, dear: She was so cute he literally put her in his pocket and took her home

Give us a big kiss: There has been a huge rise in demand in recent years in Russia for mini brides

Does this dress make my bum look big? Even when all the groomsmen worked together, they couldn't get this bride to fit in her dress

Transformers in surprise: No one knew which way to turn when Optimus Prime arrived to give the bride away

A tyring day!: The congregation realised the car would need a push when the bride and groom turned into wheels

Criminal photography: The bridesmaid was inconsolable after she stumbled across the crime scene

Run for your wives: When the best man described the groom as larger than life, he didn't mean it literally

You are my strength: Her pre-wedding diet appeared to have paid off

Your love is like a giant mug: It's unclear exactly what point this picture is trying to make

Smile, we're framous: Despite every attempt to bring a touch of class to their wedding, he just couldn't take it seriously

Lenin me your ears: This couple were desperate to trumpet their union from under the statue of their favourite revolutionary

In most cases, though, you wouldn't know this is supposed to the happiest day of their lives, though one couple are look full of joy as they serenade a statue of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin.

The popular blogger who goes under the name 'pryf' simply says 'How not to take wedding pictures', and his montage is spreading like wildfire round the web.