Photographer Speaks Out About Controversy-Sparking Photo Shoot of Kids Recreating Disturbing Scenes from The Walking Dead: 'I've Been Bashed All Day'

The Walking Dead has long been known for testing the limits of what viewers are comfortable seeing, but one photographer has courted controversy by going even farther than the show itself.

Alana Hubbard, a New Jersey-based photographer who owns Mother Hubbard Photography created a photo shoot paying homage to the AMC hit's most memorable, often disturbing scenes – only with child models, including her own two children. And, despite the envelope-pushing concept, she was nonetheless surprised when the images resulted in a ban from Facebook and the anger of hundreds of strangers.

In Hubbard's series, 24 children were dressed from head to toe to replicate the show's characters, including plastic versions of their signature weapons fake blood. (Because of the graphic nature of the photo series, many of the images are too graphic to be shown here.)

One image, which has since been removed by Facebook, shockingly depicts the final moments of season 6's ultra-violent cliffhanger, in which Negan ( Jeffrey Dean Morgan) threatens the survivors with a wire-wrapped baseball bat.

"This is not something I invented in my head," Hubbard tells PEOPLE. "These scenes have been seen by millions of people already on The Walking Dead. I don't even understand why this is a controversy at all. It's already been done. I'm just reenacting it and paying homage to my favorite TV show."

Hubbard, 29, initially planned to include only her own children, as she began looking for their costumes, she found that her son was the spitting image of hero Rick Grimes ( Andrew Lincoln), and it helped that "he loves police officers."

With her daughter as a miniature Carol Peletier ( Melissa McBride), Hubbard started seeing look-alikes around her neighborhood.

"My neighbor's son looked like Daryl [Dixon] ( Norman Reedus), so I wanted to add him," she says. "Then I needed Carl ( Chandler Riggs) and Michonne ( Danai Gurira), and it spiraled from there and I got the whole community involved – 24 kids in total."

As it happened, the parents we also big fans of the show and "really wanted to do it." Hubbard adds that both the kids and the parents had a great time recreating the scenes for the camera, but the response she got online was much less welcoming.

"I knew it was going to be popular no matter what. I was in a photography group on Facebook and I posted a few pictures for constructive criticism and it just started a firestorm there," she says. "Everyone has said everything you could impossibly imagine to me on the Internet," she says.

"They're upset about the toy guns and the fact that I shot on inactive rusty tracks with a forest growing through them and that they apparently look like active tracks."

"The gun that was used for my son, came with his Rick costume that I bought for a kid. All the kids on Halloween that are dressing like Rick are going to be using the same toy gun," she adds. "All of the other toy guns I got from Toys "R" Us. So, I don't get it. People are commenting on all of the fake guns, but when I started searching all of The Walking Dead's photos, there's multiple pictures of Lizzie and Mika – the two little girls on the show – pointing guns. There are tons of pictures of Carl pointing guns and kid zombies everywhere. Why are those okay and mine aren't?"

One stranger even posted graphic images of actual dead children on Hubbard's Facebook wall, and, when she went to report the images, Facebook stated the photos were not in violation of their policy.

"I'm saddened and confused as to how Facebook could allow such hypocrisy, actual dead children don't violate the page, but a kid and toy motorcycle with little kid zombies does?" Hubbard says. "I'm also upset because Facebook issued an official apology to me and said the photos would be returned and my ban finished and since then they deleted more innocent photos (a little boy with a bat) and the Sasha photo. I'm still banned, so I'm confused as to their stance on the situation and would like some clarification."

When reached by PEOPLE for comment, a Facebook spokesperson responded, "The post was removed in error and restored as soon as we were able to investigate. Our team processes millions of reports each week, and we sometimes get things wrong. We're very sorry about this mistake."

But Hubbard's problems didn't end when she regained Facebook access – strangers have been verbally attacking her on her page with countless comments about her parenting.

"I have people calling my daughter a bitch and my son a future serial killer, and they're saying I'm a psycho," Hubbard says. "Of course they are questioning me about my morals and my parenting and what kind of mother I am. They're just saying the worst, most horrible things that anyone could say to insult me about my work, my business, my kids. I've been bashed all day."

Hubbard admits she's thought about removing the photos altogether.

"There was a time for a second when I first posted them that I thought, 'Maybe I should take them down,' " she says. "But then I spoke with all the parents and I said, 'If there is anything that you find offensive or you don't stand behind, I will delete it.' If anyone had a problem, I would have deleted it – even though they had signed them off. They were taking a lot of flack for this, and they were willing to standup and be little warriors for me and my actions. They're really being wonderful."

"I messaged the mother who's kid was playing Lizzie and I said, 'Really quick, before this gets any bigger, would you like me to take it down?' " she adds. "And she was like 'No, I love the photo.' But then it got viral and she had to untag herself, but she still supports me and doesn't want me to delete it." That Lizzie photo in question shows Hubbard's daughter playing the role of Carol and pointing a toy gun at the young girl playing Lizzie's head.

Aside from the countless negative comments, Hubbard does admit that there was a silver lining to posting her photos.

"I had so many amazing things happen," she says. "My children and my photos are on Walking Dead.Com. So that's really cool. All the kids and parents are really excited. They never would have imagined in a million years this would happen. As a huge fan of the show, to see the hard work and hours of time and planning the parents and kids did, to see it on the page and everything ... this has been the best and worst day of my life."

"My future goal is to make a way to do a photo shoot with the actual cast and their mini versions," she adds. "It would be really cool."