Photographer Jackie Haxthausen’s latest photo series chronicles life during perimenopause
The remedies for perimenopause aren’t just medical. For photographer Jackie Haxthausen, artistic expression is a form of coping and connecting that has been cathartic in her perimenopause journey.
Over the past months, she has taken her camera and her alien mask, which she uses to create images that convey anonymity, humor and the out-of-body strangeness of the condition, everywhere from the period product aisle of Target to the rainforests of Costa Rica with the hope of capturing the lived experiences that she and so many women are suffering through.
“Perimenopause is unifying when so much is divisive right now,” Haxthausen says. “It happens to all women, and it’s something we can all connect about. I can start up a conversation with any woman in the age range, and we could talk for hours. It affects us all.”
In each image, she dramatizes a perimenopause symptom or byproduct that is interrupting her daily life. There are night sweats, brain fog and irregular periods, in addition to inconveniences like navigating complicated supplement regimens and desperately seeking out solutions or other possible remedies.
“In the beginning, I was just doing this for me,” she says. “You know, laugh so you don’t cry. But as I shared the project with my friends, I realized how much it resonated and made other women feel less crazy.”
There’s a bit of irony involved in this endeavor to not feel “crazy,” though. Haxthausen says it was when she was hiking through the rainforest with an alien mask and retro safari costume in tow that she had the fleeting thought that maybe, just maybe, she had lost her mind. “While I was trying to pose without being able to talk and barely able to breathe in the mask, and our tour guide was just snapping away with no directives on if he got it or how we needed to adjust, I wondered what on earth I was doing,” she recalls. “But it all worked out in the end.”
Titled “Greetings … I’m Peri,” the photo series is an ongoing project that starts with the images displayed on these pages and will continue on Haxthausen’s social media accounts. From concept to sourcing props to editing, each photo takes at least eight hours to complete, often with the help of Haxthausen’s husband and three children. But it’s a labor of love, she says, that is worth every odd Amazon order or public outing in an alien costume.
“I have a huge list of ideas to keep working on and a goal of maybe 20 to 25 images,” she says. “The images tell a larger story, and they are powerful together. My hope is that this project takes away some of the taboo surrounding talking about women’s bodies and health.”
Follow @jackiehaxthausen on Instagram for updates on her “Greetings … I’m Peri” series.
