Many children dread getting their photo taken. Jackie Haxthausen’s kids get to treat photo shoots like playtime.
They bring fun into Haxthausen’s dreamy, homemade sets. One day, their mom might be spray painting hundreds of gift boxes to build a whimsical holiday backdrop. Next, she’s scouring antique stores to find a vintage walkman for a Stranger Things-inspired shoot.
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The local photographer tries to make her family’s monthly, themed photo shoots as easy and enjoyable as possible for her three kiddos, Ellie, Emme and Hopper. She always makes sure she has the background and lighting set up just right, so all her little ones have to do is pose and play pretend. With some quick snaps of her Nikon and a few hours of Photoshop magic, the result is a witty, colorful photo to cherish for a lifetime—and quite the family photo album.
“They’re obviously my muses,” Haxthausen says about her kids. “I can’t make my art totally without them, so I rely on them. I want it to be a positive experience.”
Haxthausen’s greatest collaborators are her children. She keeps a running list of their interests for photo shoot ideas. If they come home from school babbling about a new hobby, it’s likely to become the new basis for a series of fun family photos. When her daughters wanted to give her massages all the time, she created a world where they were tiny masseuses giving her a spa day.
It’s the perfect way to combine their passions with her own: photography.
In fact, documenting her children is what helped her fall in love with the art form nine years ago.
“When my first daughter was born, I had a camera,” she remembers. “I was just obsessed with learning how to use it to capture her better.”
Now a full-time photographer with her own clients, Haxthausen says she continues capturing her own kids so she can create special memories with them while also constantly flexing her own creative muscles.
“Baton Rouge has a very traditional photo market,” she says. “People love their black and white photos because they’re classy and beautiful. And I love them too, but I don’t know if that really captures the essence of childhood. Childhood is whimsical, and I think it’s so important to factor in what’s special to them.” 
For most of her shots, Haxthausen likes to flip roles with her children or insert some witty commentary. In one shot, she’s relaxing on the couch with a coffee in one hand and a martini in the other, while the window behind her shows her kids boarding the school bus. In another photo, her daughters give her a mani-pedi while she relaxes on a lounge chair with their dog.
“If you notice, I’m always the opposite of probably what’s really true—like sitting in the pool while the kids are doing the laundry,” she laughs. “Obviously mom life is not the life of glamor, but I just love the humor in that. It’s like an ironic humor where everyone knows the total opposite of what is true, but also it’s just funny.”
The tradition of capturing the evanescence of adolescence also allows Haxthausen to get in touch with her own inner child, combining imagination with nostalgia through her craft.
“I just am probably a child a little bit,” she says. “I get inspired by all different kinds of things all the time, and I feel like I just have to run with whatever that is when it comes to me. I was in theater and art growing up, so any chance to play a character or get dress up, I’m there for it.”
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This article was originally published in the December 2022 issue of 225 magazine.