Intimate Portraits of Cosplayers at Home

 

Klaus Pichler is an artist and photographer living and working in Vienna, Austria. After studying landscape architecture from 1996 – 2005 at the University of Life Sciences in Vienna, Pichler has been a freelance photographer ever since, working for international clients and pursuing personal projects.

In an ongoing series entitled Just the Two Of Us, Pichler takes portraits of Cosplayers dressed up, but within the confines of their own homes. Short for “costume play”, Cosplay is a performance art and subculture in which participants wear costumes and accessories to represent a specific character or idea.

In the project statement, Pichler states:

“Who hasn’t had the desire just to be someone else for a while? Dressing up is a way of creating an alter ego, a second skin which one’s behaviour can be adjusted to and causes a person to be perceived differently. ‘Just the two of us’ deals with both costumes and the people behind them.
 
For the photo series I visited owners of elaborate costumes in their own homes. The choice of location is not a coincidence: Nowhere else is the (abstract) link between the person behind the mask and his or her alter ego as visible as in their own home. Nowhere else would it have been possible to portray the mask and, figuratively speaking, the person behind it on the same picture. The costume—usually full body costumes, which completely conceal the ‘private’ person—represents the alter ego whilst the surrounding living space, so to speak, the ‘backdrop’ or stage design cautiously impart information about the person behind the costume.”

 

The extended project statement delves even deeper into the series and is worth a read if the photos below pique your interest. You can find many more interesting projects from Pichler at the links below. Klaus is available for commissions worldwide and is represented by Anzenberger Gallery in Vienna and Rockelmann & in Berlin.

[via PetaPixel]