I am not a cosplayer...
I first started this project by thinking about the passion that people had toward their cosplay. I was amazed by the time invested and the attention to detail.
Then I went to ComicCon.
I realized that the passion for the details, while important, was such a small part of cosplay. I realized that the bigger part was the community.
I recognized that cosplayers weren’t trying to escape from reality, but instead they were creating meaningful relationships with others who shared their interests.
I saw that the cosplayers shared powerful connections and friendships with each other, as both cosplayers and as the characters they represent.
It is that sense of community and individual identity that I wanted to explore through this project.