This special issue of The New York Times Magazine is dedicated entirely to love in New York City over the course of a single day: Saturday, May 19, 2018. All the photography was shot on that date between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. By choosing this theme and so tightly limiting the time frame, we hoped to convey the city’s magical density of intimacies, the way it juxtaposes (especially as the weather begins to warm) the private communion of one pair of lovers with the rollicking public energy of the bustling crowd — itself composed of numberless lovers communing privately amid the noise, all the center of their own universe.

Watch how we made this issue.