Cosplayers at home

We've all seen photographs of people dressed as their favorite characters from books, movies, or video games. Usually these pictures are taken at thematic conventions and exhibitions, and cosplayers stand next to other fellows of interest in no less bright and interesting costumes. However, how often have you seen a cosplayer parade out of context? Say, at home? Well, photographer Klaus Pichler gives us such an opportunity in his photo project “Just the two of us”.

1. Klaus Pichler is an artist and photographer living and working in Vienna.

After studying landscape architecture from 1996 to 2005 at the University of Life Sciences in Vienna, Pichler has since become a freelance photographer, working for international clients and pursuing personal projects.

2. In this series of photographs titled "Only We Are Widowed", Pichler takes portraits of cosplayers dressed in costume but within their own homes.

3. Cosplay takes its name from the abbreviation costume play - “costume game” and is a performing art and subculture in which participants wear costumes and accessories to portray a certain character or idea.

4. In an accompanying narration to the project, Pichler says, “Which of us hasn't had the desire to just be someone else for a while? Dressing up is a way of creating an alter ego, a second skin that can regulate someone's behavior and make them perceive a person differently." "Just the two of us" deals with both the costumes and the people in them.

5. For a series of photographs, I visited the owners of elaborate costumes in their own homes. The choice of location is not accidental: nowhere else (abstractly) is the connection between the masked man and his alter ego visible, as is visible in one's own home. It is impossible to do this elsewhere: to depict a mask and, figuratively speaking, a face under it in one photograph. The costume - usually completely covering the body, also completely hides the “private” person in this case represents the alter ego, while the surrounding living space, so to speak, the “background” or scene carefully tells about the person in the suit”

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