1. According to Mountfort et al. (2018), what are the three main genres of cosphotography, and how did they historically develop?
Cosphotography is a genre of photography that is mostly seen at conventions where photography of people in cosplay is taken with a range of different modes and settings. The idea of photographing people in costume has existed far before the notion of cosplay with perhaps the earliest account of cosphotgraphy according to Mountfort (2018, p. 48) being from “the United States from around 1908, when William Fell of Cincinnati attended a masquerade ball held at a skating rink in Ohio dressed as Mr. Skygack.” Cosphotography includes several different genres the first being officially conducted costume competitions at conventions and secondly, the genre labeled hallways snapshots where photographs of people in cosplay are taken in convention spaces. Later in the 1970s, a third genre of cosphotography had begun, this being the studio portrait.
Official costumes competitions are the most formal genre of cosphotography that appear within conventions and feature multiple attendees of said convention who are in cosplay that participates in the costume competition, typically on a stage or runway. By presenting themselves on the runway cosplayers are consenting to photographs of their cosplay being taken and want to be seen in a more formal setting. Cosplayers will often try to act in character to heighten their performance on the runway. This genre of cosphotography emerged in “the annual Masquerade originally a kind of fancy dress ball was inaugurated at the 1940 Chicago conference” (Mountfort, 2018, p. 50). A reason for the genre’s inception may have been developments in camera technology and that technology becoming widely available to the public with affordable models.
Hallway snapshots are the least formal cosphotography genre and do not require the cosplayer’s consent, photographs taken in this style of cosphotgraphy are almost entirely shot within hallways of the convention center or inside the convention itself. Like with the official costume competitions the hallway costume emerged in the late 1930s and “casual shots are in evidence from 1939 (Mountfort, 2018, p. 50). As mentioned, hallway snapshots are far less formal than the other two genres of cosphotography and the lack of consent is a reason for this with photos looking heavily out of character. Angles are often unflattering and can show cosplayers performing mundane tasks or taking a break from the main floor.
The final genre of cosphotography is the studio portrait although the name is similar to a fashion shoot, done within a private location, and photographers hired specifically for the photoshoot, and professional cosplayers may do something along those lines. The staging is generally done in or around the convention center and not a dedicated studio. The studio portrait emerged in the 1970s, an early star of the studio portrait was Angelique Trouvere who cosplayed characters like Red Sonja and Vampirella. Studio portraits are just as formal as the costume competitions although the difference between the two is that “many of these carefully modelled shots resemble fashion studio photographs more than runway and hallway snapshots” (Mountfort, 2018, p. 51). The framing of the studio portrait is intended to look more professional; cosplayers and their photographers achieve this by selecting a photogenic location around the convention center. It results in photographs that can cleverly pass as professional without the cost associated with renting a studio space.
References
P, Mountfort. (2018). Planet Cosplay. Bristol, UK; Intellect Books.
Pop Genres 2020 