blog nine

In what ways can cosphotography be understood as a form of “fan capital”?

Unofficial and offline promotions and resources may consider a capital for fans and personal works. For instance, cosphotography.

Photograph plays a vital role in contemporary cultures of cosplay and it is a key tradition among fans and promotion within this culture. According to (Mountfort et al., 2018), cosphotography has developed through several decades as a tradition among fandom, it is worthwhile works to memorize for fans and it is also a record to reveal how this culture represented and performed. Cosphotography can be taking pictures of people in customs and recording videos. Both pieces and other forms of recordings are the “token” of players as cosplay requires their endeavor and devoting of time, skills, personal life and competencies. Those videos, photographs and even documentary contain many different features of players and their works, and thus prominent works are values to cosplayers as they may be role models to help other individuals to establish or improve their own work. Furthermore, cosphotography can be a means to increase players’ and works’ commercial capital within the culture. For instance, cosplayers’ active performances can bring more attention to their works and thus make their works worth. Mountfort et al (2018) also assert that cosphotography can make players work worthwhile.

Unfortunately, issues arise with the development of cosphotography. Mountfort et al (2018) explore the issue of “heterotopian and hegemonic control of cosplaying spaces”. Hegemonic occupied dominant position and power to control the spaces and thus others on the opposite positions may experience body shaming or cursing in the online community.

References

 Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet cosplay: Costume play, identity and global fandom. Intellect.