If you’re sick of seeing photos of loved-up couples on your timeline, let us introduce you to Harrison Bach and Jackie Martin.
The pair broke up in 2015 but recently decided to pose for a “breakup photoshoot” to provide an alternative take on modern romance.
“I just wanted to make an ironic, humour-based photo album taking a unique look at relationship photos,” Bach told The Huffington Post UK.
“People frequently take nice ‘nature-based’ photos of them and their significant other when their relationship is going great.
“My goal was to take photos in that same setting but this time at the point of the relationship where the couple is broken up or in turmoil.”
Bach and Martin started dating in high school, but broke up in 2015 after they went to university and their long distance relationship became too much to handle.
“I go to school in Michigan for bio-med and she goes to school in LA for acting. We are totally following our passions and are having the most fun doing so, but unfortunately with the long distance, we just ended up losing a lot of quality time and then things in every other part of the relationship started to fall apart,” Bach explained.
“The break up was this hot and cold process that went on for very long. But once it ended in late 2015, we took most of 2016 to ourselves and learned how to love ourselves again.”
Bach and Martin are still on good terms and the images went viral after Bach’s friend William posted them on Twitter, where they gained more than 2,000 likes.
The concept received a mixed response, with some questioning why the pair did the shoot and one person calling the images “the Instagram equivalent to breakup sex”.
Others repurposed the images and turned them into memes.
Although it wasn’t quite the reaction he was hoping for, Bach hasn’t been offended by the memes.
“A lot of people are uncomfortable, weirded out, making wild assumptions about the photos,” he said.
“I haven’t been offended by any of the comments people have made, honestly I see the super awkward cringe humour when people view these photos out of context.
“I think one in 1,000 people have been able to see my original intentions with the photos. Either way, my work has impacted a lot of people in an array of ways and that’s pretty cool. “
Martin also said she wasn’t too fussed about the memes and comments that have appeared online.
“It actually got taken out of context a bit,” she told HuffPost UK.
“We broke up about a year ago and have remained super close since. We are each other’s best friends, so this photo shoot didn’t feel painful at all.
“We actually did the shoot as a funny and ironic sort of thing. We are on pretty good terms, so we didn’t go into it being super serious.”
She said she had “no idea” the photos would be turned into memes, but she understands why people made them.
“Harrison and I have never been the type to take ourselves super seriously, so it’s quite fitting that this would happen to us,” she said.
Despite the ups and downs of the shoot, Bach said he’s glad he did it as it’s made him realise how much he misses his ex.
“All this attention is bound to do something interesting to our relationship, I guess I’m excited to ride this out and see what it is,” he said.
Watch this space.