starlightslk:

My PAX East badge just arrived! I’m super excited despite having a ton of work left to do on my cosplays for the convention…^^; hehe

I love the fact that they mail out the badges so you don’t have to wait/waist time in any pesky pre-reg lines, you just get to go, it’s way too cool! :D

No pic of my badge pre-convention because they asked that people not post pictures of their badges online to help prevent counterfeiting.

Its good practice. Don’t let counterfeiting ruin the fun for everyone.

Mesoian:

I’ve been in New York City for a few days, both for business and pleasure, and while walking around Times Square for the sake of boredom and idle curiousity, I stumbled upon Midtown Comics. It’s pretty big, has a nice selection of comics, manga and merch, very clean; what you’d consider to be a quality establishment, though some of the employees seem to be rather short with people (understandable considering the nature of the beast).

As I browsed around the manga section looking for nothing of particular note, I came across this. A rather poorly constructed book who’s cover looked as if it was going to tear off at any given moment, claiming to be an encyclopedic reference to cosplay and characters suitible for such. I assumed it had simply been manhandled by wayward customers and picked up another copy of it, only to find it in the same exact shape. The odd fake velvet book wrapping with a picture seemingly glued to it was how the product was supposed to look, it was what they were going for. I opened up the book and started thumbing through a few pages, reading a few exerpts from the author and once the images began to pop up, I began to think something was very wrong. None of the models seemed happy. None of their costumes seemed all that well put together. Page after page, I continued to flip only to be greated with image after image of a young woman with poor posture, slumped forward in a rather hastily put together outfit, looking as if she hadn’t eaten in a week and was unsure when her next meal would arrive. It was as if cosplay were being used to draw parallels between against everyday life and human suffering. I can’t claim to have made it through the entire book as I quickly shut the thing, took a picture of the cover for future reference, and replaced it upon the shelf, my mind beginning to worry and panic. Though, in heinsight, while i may question the state of the models in the book, google goggles, google’s visualization and recognition program, had no trouble identifying the model on the cover as Anju Zelda. So perhaps the joke’s on me in the end.

I couldn’t help but wonder, however, if there were any other cosplay books available to buy. I think we’re all familiar with “Cosplay In America”, a nicely put together, if safe, photo anthology of two years worth of national anime convention attendance, though this book particularly is difficult to find outside of extremeist hobby shops or anime cons. I didn’t think there would be much demand for something like this due to the nature of cosplay’s relationship with the internet, and subsequently most cosplayers relationship with most professional level photographers. Eventually I came across “Cosplay Fever”, a UK based picture book of international cosplay. As I flipped through, my brow begain to forrow just a bit as I came across rather sloppily done cosplayers who clearly had been quickly picked out of a random convention line out of convience for the photographer. Very few of the costumes were interesting or accurate and most of the models themselves had looks of dumb surprise or shock, as if they were caught off guard and only afterwards asked if it was okay to have their picture taken (a common occurance).

I put the book down and started too meander around the comic shop, taking a moment to pause at a live size figurine of Spiderman and gaze out over time square, trying to figure out who books like these were for. Books of photos that could barely be called professionally done, the only nature of professionalism seeming to be the caliber camera being used an the non-too-sublte use of a black backdrop. Very few models seem interested, forget happy, to be involved as far as the final product is concerned and neither book seemed interested in trying to explore the ideals of why people cosplay or how they started, or any sort of anecdotal substance at all. They seem like slapdash picture collections, common of any given photorepository.

My mind began to ponder the ideals of the author or photographer and their motives behind creating such things. It made me wonder whether or not they cared about catching cosplayers outside of their best or in awkward situations, or if each model was just another page closer to making their deadline, another stepping stone to completion. It made me wonder if they knew how much their models cared about what they were doing, or if the models cared enough themselves to do a little research on the project before applying allowing their likeliness to be used in such a way.

The entire lack of thought behind anything, or at least, the concept of that absence of understanding, felt mean spirited. Whether they actually cared or not about the actual mindset of the model or if all they wanted was a photo and a signature is nothing I can attest to; I can only made broad assumptions about such motives. But with the end result, and comparing it to photobooks where the photographer is trying to make the reader experience something opposed to saying, seemingly literally, “Here’s my photoset from otakon, hope you like it…” it makes me wondered if anyone but me actually took the time to question whether or not this was a thing that needed to be. Such thoughts are rather narcissistic, but…those were my thoughts non-the-less. 

It made me sigh and pace and as I picked up a copy of Johnny Wander on my way out, wondering if anyone with suitable photography knowledge and background would care enough to make a cosplay photobook that is more than simply trying to make a buck of their hobby.

And then I realized that that was probably asking too much.