Single Woman Protests Marriage Pressure In Surreal Photo Series
Suzanne Heintz calls herself a spinster, but she doesn't see it as a bad word. Heintz is taking spinster back, and recreating the trope of a woman needing to be married to be happy into a satirical farce.
A conceptual photographer and performance artist, Heintz's photo series Life Once Removed pokes fun at the social pressures women face to get married. Constantly asked why she never started a family, Heintz decided to create her own...using mannequins. Adopting a plastic husband and daughter, Heintz photographs the trio in all sorts of standard family affairs.
Heintz's photos are funny, but there is definitely an inherent creepiness to the whole series, and I think that's the point. Seeing Heintz overly happy, and straight up looking crazy, makes the intense desire women have to get married look like a type of delirium. While Heintz is crazy-happy, the mannequins look miserable, a nod to how marriage for the sake of marriage is a societal trap for all those involved, wives, husbands, and children alike.
See Once Life Removed below and check out more of Heintz's work at her Official Website.