A Valentine's Day Story

Text & Photos by Fred Berger

This vertical color photo depicts a Cupid-like character with white feathered wings and a white loin cloth. The model is a transwoman with smallish hormone-induced breasts. She has short spiked blonde hair and blue eyes. She has a pretty face and a slim well-toned body. She is touching the hair on the top of her head with both hands and is viewed from the front. She is visible from the lower thighs up. The background is black with shiny reflections from a light stand. Across the top of the photo is the title “Propaganda” in all capital letters colored medium gray. Across the bottom of the photo is the title “Trans Valentine Cupid” in hot pink script style lettering.

In observance of Valentine's Day 2026, this piece is under the heading “Current Articles,” even though the subject matter and photos date back to the late 1990s. The featured model was very reminiscent of ancient Rome’s mythological deity Cupid, the son of Venus the goddess of love and Mars the god of war. With the face and body of a pre-Raphaelite angel, this exquisite androgen could assume the guise of a Salome-like temptress or a Marquis de Sade-like tormentor. These contesting personas would be in keeping with Cupid’s esteemed parentage, conferring both beauty and ruthlessness on their beguiling offspring. Due to privacy concerns, I will refer to this individual by the pseudonym Nera, the feminine form of the name Nero, both meaning “black” in Italian, alternately used in accordance with the language’s system of grammatical gender. Speaking of which, she presented a formidable challenge to societal gender norms and taboos, which coupled with her innate allure and voracious appetites was the very embodiment of my concept of “radical beauty.” Not only was Nera one of my most audacious models, but she was also a gifted artist and performer, although she tended to burn the candle at both ends, sometimes to her own detriment.

This vertical color photo depicts the same person on the dance floor of the Mother nightclub in Lower Manhattan. She has a wispy combination of blonde and reddish hair with braided hairextensions hanging in her face. She wears a lose-fitting white pullover shirt with an abstract art print in pastel colors. She also wears extremely short pink shorts, black and white ankle boots, and a red watch with a wide watchband. She is bent at the waist and leaning towards the camera. Facing the camera, her eyes and mouth are wide open in an expression of surprise or excitement. Her hands grab her knees, and her legs are spread far apart. She is visible from the ankles up. In the background to her left is a young man who is dancing. He wears a black short-sleeve shirt and black leather pants. He’s handsome and slim and has short dark hair. The heads of four other club patrons are also visible in the background, but their faces are not fully visible. Behind them is a gray wall with the title HEROES printed in large black letters.

As a romantic deity, Cupid is synonymous with Valentine’s Day, a holiday that has its origins in the Roman pagan Feast of Lupercalia, which involved the whipping of women in the belief that it would enhance their fertility. Couples would then be matched through a lottery and would mate during the three days of the festival from February 13 to 15. For its part, the Church of Rome also observed February 14 as a feast day for Saint Valentine, who was martyred on that day in the 3rd century. In typical Catholic fashion, the pagan and Christian celebrations were combined into one, but without the heathen excesses. And it was on February 9 in 1999 that I was visiting Nera at her studio apartment in the Meat Packing District of Lower Manhattan, known for its gay bars, sex clubs, and street hookers. Mentioning that I had just seen a Valentine’s Day mannequin display in the window of a local erotic boutique, I proposed to her that she model as Cupid. With her approval, I immediately purchased the wings at the shop and returned to photograph her. Although spontaneous and hurried, the shoot yielded superb results. Nera had been in the middle of getting ready to go-go dance at the alternative nightclub Mother, one of her many downtown gigs. But for this graduate of the School of Visual Arts in New York City, art always came first.

AGE NOTIFICATION: The model appearing in the topless photo of this article was over the age of 18 at the time that photo was taken. A photocopy of the model’s U.S. passport and signed model release from that photo-shoot are on file with the photographer, Fred Berger.

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