Fandomania: Characters & Cosplay

Elena Dorfman

Softcover |  21 x 2.3 x 28 cm | 144 pp

Aperture | 2007 | 9781597110358

In Fandomania, photographer Elena Dorfman examines the pop culture phenomenon of "cosplay," in which participants dress up in costumes and live part of their lives as characters from video games, animated films, and Japanese graphic novels. This exploding subculture flourishes at convention centres, college dorms, private clubs, and homes.

Dorfman puts herself quietly behind the scenes of these fan-based events to create a remarkable collective portrait. As she describes it, "The theatre of cosplay has no boundaries, is unpredictable, open-ended. It includes both the fantastic and the mundane, the sexually aberrant and innocent, female characters who become samurai warriors and brainy scientists, and male characters who magically change their sex."

Explorations of identity through portraiture are at the forefront of Dorfman's work, with the blurred lines between fantasy and reality a continuing theme. She allows each individual a spotlight in which to enact their fantasy. The effect is pointedly evocative of this new world of role playing and narrative, one in which scenery is secondary and persona is everything.