Denver photographer Suzanne Heintz, a self-described “spinster,” hauls mannequins all over the world to pose in self-portraits that she hopes will have people rethinking how they view single women.
Heintz was tired of people asking whether she was going to ever get married and have kids, according to Jenna Garrett of Feature Shoot. In her ongoing project “Life Once Removed,” Heintz depicts herself with an ecstatic smile enjoying a cup of coffee in a café with her second-hand mannequin husband, standing with him and a mannequin daughter in front of the Eiffel Tower, delirious with joy, serving them Christmas dinner, and hauling them on a toboggan up a mountain.
Heintz told Garrett, “For women, the path to fulfillment is not through one thing, it’s all things—education, career, home, family, accomplishment, enlightenment. If any one of those things is left out, it’s often perceived that there’s something wrong with your life. We are somehow never enough just as we are. We are constantly set up by our expectations to feel as though we are missing something.”
“I’m simply trying to get people to open up their minds and quit clinging to antiquated notions of what a successful life looks like,” she said. And her photos just might do that, while giving everyone a laugh.
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