Collected Item: “Love Vs Us”
Your Name
Deyana Villanueva
Your Pronouns
She, Her, Them
Instagram handle, if any
@dey_wonder, @dey_ology
Work Title
Love Vs Us
Work Year (We are not accepting images older than 5 years)
2025
[Image Rights] Do you confirm that you hold the rights to this image?
Yes
[Eligibility] The Curve Photo Contest proudly centers and uplifts people who identify as lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer women and nonbinary people. Please share how you self-identify, using language that feels most accurate to you. Feel free to include all intersections of your identity. (Examples: lesbian, trans person of color, Latinx queer woman, radical faery, butch, etc.)
I exist as a central american, Caribbean non-confirming femme
[Artist Statement] Tell us more about your photo by sharing a brief artist statement OR answering this prompt: "This is what being ______ means to me..." (Max. 100 words)
I held and directed a photo session between my wife and I. The session was held as a celebration of our years together. It was a reflection on how allowing ourselves to love and be loved as deeply opened so many doors to self-reflection and acceptance, to vulnerability, and to a full surrender to vast trenches of the complexities of unconditional love.
However, that only came with constant relinquish to the unknown and the uncontrollable.
A constant challenge to what we know of "love".
A constant questioning of the root of our actions and emotional behavior. Of identity and the norms that rules our lives. Our choices.
Firstly, towards ourselves and then to those who we share this existence with.
Then comes the materialization of our redefined version of pure love.
Which doesn’t come by without a challenge but then it becomes bliss. Then the cycle repeats.
Endlessly making this lifetime very purposeful, because love is limitless.
Love is total madness.
It’s too vast for our human brains to even comprehend and for our language to even dare explain.
Our wish is for everyone to allow themselves to experience this with any dynamic we hold a safe space with. Our friends, our mother, our sisters, our brothers.
The communities we’re part of.
The communities we’re building but most importantly with ourselves.
A love bound to no human limitation.
However, that only came with constant relinquish to the unknown and the uncontrollable.
A constant challenge to what we know of "love".
A constant questioning of the root of our actions and emotional behavior. Of identity and the norms that rules our lives. Our choices.
Firstly, towards ourselves and then to those who we share this existence with.
Then comes the materialization of our redefined version of pure love.
Which doesn’t come by without a challenge but then it becomes bliss. Then the cycle repeats.
Endlessly making this lifetime very purposeful, because love is limitless.
Love is total madness.
It’s too vast for our human brains to even comprehend and for our language to even dare explain.
Our wish is for everyone to allow themselves to experience this with any dynamic we hold a safe space with. Our friends, our mother, our sisters, our brothers.
The communities we’re part of.
The communities we’re building but most importantly with ourselves.
A love bound to no human limitation.
[Visual Description] Describe your photo so we can provide alt-text. Example: "Two women holding hands and smiling as they walk in a pride parade, surrounded by rainbow flags."
Two femme entities sharing an intimate moment, showcasing the vulnerability within the art of Shibari.
[Agreement] In the event that you win the 2026 Curve Photo Contest, do you consent to having your photograph printed for the sole purpose of displaying at The Curve Foundation's one-day event at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco, CA) during Lesbian Visibility Week? The Curve Foundation will cover printing costs, but will not cover costs for mailing the print after the event ends.
Yes
[Agreement] Do you consent to The Curve Foundation storing, sharing, and using this image and its description as we deem appropriate, including disseminating on our social media, website, and Curve Archive and Curve Quarterly?
Yes
[Agreement] By checking 'I understand' below, I acknowledge that this contest upholds values of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and I confirm that my submission does not contain anti-LGBTQ+ or other discriminatory, hateful, or exclusionary content.
I understand