O HAPPY DAYS

A cascade of flowers: a sign of abundant joy, as in the bride who throws her bouquet in a generous act of passing on her happiness, or something else? Behind the facade of kitsch colour there lies a definite note of disappointment, deception, and even danger. This series of photos questions the myths and fairy tales surrounding the idea of “happy ever after…”

As in the Beckett play, Happy Days, the heroine is buried under the delusions of promises and expectations. It is a bleak rendition of the realities of marriage, far from the ideal depicted in popular romance and incarnated in the person of prince charming. The confrontation between the glossy depiction of successful love and the reality of heartache, divorce statistics, and domestic violence, forms the undercurrent of this work. Is it Cinderella or Looking for Mr. Goodbar? Or should the question be about something else entirely? It is a dilemma still faced by women today who negotiate the intricacies of expectations and reality.