14 DAY TRIAL // Unfortunately, many people nowadays don't live their lives the way they want to and obey some ridiculous rules imposed by society or by a wrong outlook. Both men and women feel pressured to have relationships, find a partner and get married.
So, being single past a certain age is not easy for a woman, as spinsters tend to be treated like weirdos. However, a Colorado woman decided to live by her own set of rules and ignore what others said.
After being questioned countless of times about settling down and getting married by friends and family, photographer and self-proclaimed spinster Suzanne Heintz started a new project titled “Life Once Removed.”
Suzanne Heintz was sick of being interrogated about her personal life, and she found an ingenious way to elude all those annoying “When are you getting married?” questions.
When she finally had enough of all those interrogations, she decided to start a family of her own. But because she hadn't found her soul mate, the woman bought herself a mannequin, Chauncey, with whom she started the “perfect” family. They apparently have a daughter too, named Mary Margaret.
Over the next 14 years, Heintz, who works as an art director for Starz Entertainment Group in Englewood, traveled 10,000 miles (16,000 km) across America and she has been taking impressive portraits with her plastic family.
“You can't just go out and buy a family. Or can you? I did. They are mannequins. The candy coated shell with nothing inside. We do all those family things, all the while capturing those Kodak Moments,” Heintz wrote on her website.
The talented photographer has gone incredibly far with her project, in her attempt to recreate the ultimate family photo album. She even took her mannequin family on vacations to the mountains and to Paris, and created Christmas cards every year to send to her friends and family.
Heinz wants her photos to remind people that there’s more than one type of American dream, and that nobody has to live life as dictated by society or prejudices.
“If I pass through life without checking off the boxes for a wedding ring and a baby carriage, I will be missing the photo album, but not the point. When I take my photos, others stop and stare, then they ask, ‘why are you doing this?’ They, at that moment, are starting to get the point too,” she added.
You can see some of the photos taken by Suzanne Heintz as part of the project in the gallery below.
