In the exhibition ‘Everything for the Image’, Trees Heil explores the intimate and complex relationship between identity, desire, and self-expression from a female perspective. The female and queer body is celebrated as a source of creativity and imagination, showcased through various media: photography, video, and performance.

AVRO TROS, Artikel ‘Everything for the Image’ Link

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Workshop, stripclub life drawing session at Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam (2025)

BTC Group shoot at Melkweg Expo, Amsterdam

About the exhibition
Trees Heil's artistic practice explores the intimate and complex relationship between identity, desire, and self-expression from a female and queer perspective. Working across photography, film, and live performance, Heil uses the body as a source of creativity and imagination, emphasizing its role as a starting point for discovery and joy. Her approach is intuitive and collaborative, often engaging female and queer models who undergo literal and metaphorical transformations during the creative process. Heil's work inhabits a space of magical realism, embracing vulnerability and the beauty of the unexpected. The constructed scenarios she creates are poetic explorations of timeless emotions and thought processes, where spaces, people, and behaviors intertwine. The models are often depicted in ambiguous ways - faces turned away or partially obscured - to emphasize symbolism and suggestion over direct representation. "It is more about what the person symbolizes or what suggestive story is being told," Heil explains. Her exhibition, Everything for the Image, balances between attraction and alienation, offering an experience that is both sensual and disruptive. The bodies captured in her work probe the complexities of desire and its boundaries. What may initially appear playful and seductive can reveal an elusive or unsettling undercurrent upon closer inspection. The exhibition challenges viewers to reflect on their perceptions of desire and repulsion, inviting them into a space of introspection, transformation, and self-discovery. It is a celebration of the body in all its facets, an invitation to play and embrace fluidity: "Just as culture, identity, and society are constantly in flux, so are we humans. We are fountains: bodies in constant motion, flowing, puddled, bleed.

The title Everything for the Image can be interpreted in several ways. On one hand, as a photographer, I do everything for the image. My life is completely intertwined with it: through photography I meet people, make friends, and travel to different places in order to create.
At the same time, all interactions between the models are staged. So even though the intimate moments are what they are, they also stem from a desire to create images.
Additionally, ‘the image’ also refers to the way you see yourself—your persona, or the person you think you are. In my work, I aim to release that ‘image’ of who you are—or could be—or at least stretch it. The models regularly transform into other beings: frog-like creatures, horses, or fountain-like figures, for example.