In an emotionally charged new series titled Cry Baby, photographer Tasha Tylee has set about capturing the bittersweet release that comes with shedding a tear in the shower, in a bid to reveal just how similar we all really are.

Created for upcoming group art exhibition The Break Up Party, Tylee’s collection sees those closest to her, from friends to lovers past and present, breaking down in the bathroom.

The result? A snapshot of real and raw emotion, that can’t fail to make your tear ducts twitch.

After being tasked with creating work for The Break Up Party centered around the bathroom - each artist taking part was assigned a different room - Tylee made the connection between the universality of sadness, and crying in the shower.

“I’m surrounded by a really great group of kind, loving and talented people, and I really wanted to document them from a different perspective,” she tells Stylist.co.uk. “I know a lot of us are going through various things in life and I really wanted to encourage releasing any sadness.

“Being openly sad and crying with someone is as honest as you can be, I see great beauty and strength in that.”

Tylee also notes how her own life journey and experiences of crying - from being told not be a ‘cry baby’ as a child, to losing her mother and finding release in the tears that followed - inspired the narrative.

“As a child i remember being traumatised at the thought of crying in public. From a young age it is enforced into us as weakness, being called a ‘cry baby’ had so many negative connotations.

“Continuing through life I have been through loss and heartbreak, I guess this series is a release of all that emotion built up.”

Though some of her subjects needed the help of chopping-up some onions to really get the waterworks started, Tylee reveals that for the most part, everyone she photographed carried some bottled-up emotion into the shoot with them.

While it was hard-going at times - watching those closest to you well up with sadness is never easy - Tylee says she’s extremely proud of the resulting work, and the humbling message of unity the images convey.

“Everyone pretends they're tough but there is always something going on down there,” she tells i-D. “Everyone has words and instances in life that have affected them. Everyone has sadness in common, crying shows the similarities between us.”

See a selection of images from Tylee's Cry Baby series below.