Editorial Cosplay Photography: Painting with Light
Lady Mechanika incarnated by @hornagem.cosplay. Creator: Joe Benitez
Raven (Rachel Roth) incarnated by @hornagem.cospay. Creator: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
“Do you also photograph cosplay?” Morgane Taillades asked me as she showed me her own hand-designed costumes of various fantasy characters on her Instagram page.
“I haven’t tried it yet, but it looks like fashion,” I replied. And indeed, it was fashion: the metallic textures, the steampunk patterns, the collars and flowing ruffs — and as a fashion and editorial photographer, I know my way around clothing. “So yes, I photograph cosplay,” I said.
Whereas cosplay characters are largely narrative-driven, my fashion and editorial work is inspired by mood, aura, atmosphere — in other words: surface elements like color, light, and texture. But since the character is contained in these costumes, and the costume is composed of exactly these elements, I knew that I’d be able to do justice to the characters by implementing my painterly editorial style.
Raven (Rachel Roth) incarnated by @hornagem.cospay. Creator: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
Raven (Rachel Roth) incarnated by @hornagem.cospay. Creator: Marv Wolfman & George Pérez
To reach this particular effect, I used a technique called painting with light, of which Paolo Roversi is one of the most notable proponents in fashion photography. I felt that the use of a flashlight in the dark would allow me to selectively “paint” by hand the different textures and fabrics, highlighting details and leading the eye to the most salient parts of the costume, thereby creating a painterly and dreamlike aura that is harder to achieve with more conventional studio flash photography.
Lady Mechanika and Raven: Two Characters, One Technique
For the pirate Raven (otherwise known as Rachel Roth, created by Marv Wolfman and George Pérez), I felt that selectively lighting the beautiful details on the coat and accessories that Morgane had handcrafted would create the allure of a Renaissance painting, invoking the historical period in which pirates effectively roamed the seas. Similarly, for the character Lady Mechanika (created by Joe Benitez), I felt that the steampunk metallic elements would stand out against a slightly hazy background, visually anchoring the character in a fantasy realm.
Lady Mechanika incarnated by @hornagem.cosplay. Creator: Joe Benitez
Lady Mechanika incarnated by @hornagem.cosplay. Creator: Joe Benitez
Photographing cosplay through a fashion lens turned out to be less of a departure than I expected. The painterly approach I’ve developed for editorial portraiture — built on light, atmosphere, and the slow accumulation of texture — translates naturally to characters whose identities live in their costumes. What I found, working with Morgane Taillades on Raven and Lady Mechanika, is that the line between cosplay and fashion editorial is thinner than the genre conventions suggest. Both are forms of dress that make a world legible on a body; both reward a photographer willing to honor that world rather than document it flatly. I’m looking forward to photographing more cosplay characters, and to seeing where else this crossover between fantasy costumes and fashion photography wants to go.
To see more of my editorial work, click here. Or contact me here.
