viz.

The Anime Within, Elena Dorfman

The image above is from a photo essay on the Mother Jones website. The essay, entitled "The Anime Within," was disappointing to me, and while I don't want to malign Dorfman's project, especially since I am glad to see cosplay getting attention in a publication that might not normally address it, I do want to critique some of the messages that these images send.

In the picture above, the subject looks uncomfortably stranded between reality and fantasy. While in costume, she wears minimal if any makeup (thereby disrupting the illusion) and is noticeably withdrawn in posture and expression. The dark background suggests that she is nowhere; not in reality, not in fantasy, and certainly not in a community. She looks both alone and lonely.

Not all of Dorfman's subjects look as depressed. The man above's expression looks faintly playful; he has an attitude that seems appropriate to his costume. He is, however, still alone.

I know that photographing the subject alone is a convention of portraiture, but this essay made me more conscious of its effects in particular contexts. Few of the subjects have truly impressive costumes, which would not in itself be problematic if it weren't also for the fact that none really appear to be having fun. The combination of these two elements, combined with the isolation imposed by the dark background, makes the subjects seem less like artists engaged in a vibrant fan culture and more like sad loners half-heartedly trying to escape reality.

In this particular context, it seemed as if the composition choices helped enforce rather than dispel existing beliefs about people in certain fan cultures. While I would not suggest that a photo essay on cosplay ignore bad costumes or sad people, a practice that already has such circumscribed representation in many contexts deserves a photo essay that complicates stereotypes and emphasizes the complex issues of play, belonging, and performance that permeate this culture.