Laurie Simmons’ engagement with non-human subjects ranges from her earlier works, in which she photographed miniature scenes of post-war domestic splendor, to her more recent use of life-size sex dolls that appear to be engaged in surprisingly believable activities. Endowing dolls, puppets, and ventriloquist dummies with a very human sense of longing and loneliness, Simmons creates psychologically astute critiques of women’s roles in their myriad incarnations from housewife to sex object. For the series “The Love Doll: Days 1-30” (2009-2011), Simmons transformed her home into a dollhouse and shot a series of photographs documenting the process of becoming acquainted with her custom-made Japanese “love doll”, with the doll appearing to feel increasingly at ease in her surroundings as the days passed.