In what ways can cosphotography be understood as a form of “fan capital”?
Cosphotography has become a big art form during the 21st century and shows fans of the cosplay world taking part through social media. Cosphotography is a portmanteau of the words cosplay and photography used together to describe a newer genre of cosplay. It is explained by Mountfort et al. (2018), that photography is an important key element of a cosplayers life and in time, could help bring not only fame, but “fan capital” as well.
In the world of cosplay, money is a contributing element that helps many cosplayers stand out. Unless a cosplayer has made their entire outfit from scratch, it is guaranteed that they had to spend at least a little bit of money in order to do their make-up, hair, and even prosthetics if needed. Many of these items do not come cheap, and if a cosplayer wants to stand out as the best in a professional sense, then they are required to hand over their coins. This is where fan capital is helpful. Mountfort et al. (2018) says that many cosplayers hope for some sort of capital gain in return for their hard work and the time they have spent putting together their entire character.
Fan capital is explained as a source of income for many cosplayers with some sort of popularity behind them. However, fan capital can be hard to come by if the cosplayer does not have as much experience or speciality to them. Cosphotography can be understood as a form of fan capital because it includes making money through the actions of fans requesting photos and anything else to do with photography and media. Photography is a huge part of a cosplayers life because many of them have their photos taken, have music videos directed and many other forms of moving image media (Mountfort et al. 2018).
Cosphotography can be understood as a form of fan capital because it is one particular way that some cosplayers earn money. Because cosplayers spend so much time and money transforming themselves, in return they expect some form of money reward. Cosplay has become an ever increasing hobby for many individuals, however, for a lot of people it is their way of life. Dressing up and becoming someone else is a lifestyle for a vast amount of people and because it is their lifestyle and they have committed themselves enough to this artform, they deserve to be credited for their creativity.
References
Mountfort, P., Peirson-Smith, A., & Geczy, A. (2018). Planet Cosplay: Costume Play, Identity and Global Fandom. Blackboard. https://blackboard.aut.ac.nz/
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