Engagement photos, wedding photos, childbirth photos - it seems like nearly every stage of a relationship now warrants a professional photoshoot.

All you have to do is scroll through your Facebook or Instagram newsfeed to be greeted with high quality pictures of smiling couples, celebrating an occasion of some sort.

But one pair have done something different by having a photoshoot not to mark a happy occasion, but to immortalise their break-up.

Harrison Bach and his girlfriend Jackie had been high school sweethearts: “I met her when I was 16 and she was 15 in a math class, we sat right next to each other,” Harrison explained to Metro.

“A year later we started dating. She was the first real date that I have been on, the first kind of everything.”

The couple dated for about two and a half years, but decided to break up at the end of 2015 when they went their separate ways for uni - Harrison went to Michigan whereas Jackie moved to LA.

A year and a half or so later, however, Harrison had an idea - he wanted to create a break-up photoshoot to show a side of relationships that people don’t usually reveal.

“I see my friends who are in relationships doing really nice professional photography photoshoots,” he told Mashable. “I had the idea of doing the same thing in the same setting, but post-relationship, in a different way.”

And who better to do it with than his real ex-girlfriend, Jackie?

Fortunately, she was keen.

(Harrison Bach (Harrison Bach)

“I love irony, and kind of making people uncomfortable, not for shock, but to make people think,” Harrison said.

With their grey, moody, depressing vibe, the photos are certainly a far cry from the usual happy couple snaps we see all over social media.

(Harrison Bach (Harrison Bach)

It ended up being quite an emotional experience for the pair too: “To have my ex-girlfriend have to hold a kiss on my face for few seconds while the camera took the photo was a nostalgic, warm, eye-opening moment filled with a quick one second overview of our whole relationship.”

Jackie felt similarly: “Taking those pictures felt like slipping right back into our relationship - the good and bad,” she explained. “Looking at them now, I am reminded of every thing about him I fell in love with.”

After posting the pictures on Harrison's Facebook page, they were swiftly shared on Twitter and provoked a huge reaction.