According to Mountfort et al. (2018), what are the three main genres of cosphotography, and how did they historically develop?
Cosphotography is the idea of cosplay and photography becoming one. Taking photos of cosplay or people in cosplay, has become a form of entertainment over social media and for conventions like Armageddon. Cosphotography can refer to both taking photos and videos to gain recognition and money through the act of becoming a character convincingly and usually in an aesthetically pleasing way. People spend thousands of dollars trying to recreate characters from fandoms either with their own spin or in a way that convinces others that it is a good rendition of the said character.
Historically cosphotography can been seen dating back to 1908, when a man dressed as a character from a carton strip at a masquerade ball. Adapting again in the 1970 in Japan when people would dress as characters from anime and manga
The first of the three main genres would be a fashion show of cosphotography (Mountfort, 2018) where cosplayers would go to show off their cosplay and performances of their characters to a planned crowd of people and cameras, where they would be filmed, these show events would usually have a competition to reward the cosplayers hard labor and performances they create for the characters they portray.
The second would be what Mountfort refers to as ‘Hallway’ cosphotography, this can be seen most usually at conventions where cosplayers show off to crowds for fun, photos are usually taken without permission, yet a photo with another fan can be negotiated with to allow for the cosplayers to be able to make some for of capital for their labor. Again, the better or more realistic the cosplay the more rewarding the experience can be for the cosplayer. According to Mountfort, the cosplayers see it as a compliment when fans do want to have a photo taken or produced for them and can also been seen as a reward for the cosplayer.
The last genre of cosphotography would be studio portrait. This is where cosplayers are in a private location, having photos and videos taken with full consent to then share the photos and videos to share and distribute the photos themselves so that they can gain rewards for their work for themselves.
From all three genres, typically the most publicly seen is the hallway cosphotography where cosplayers go to conventions and share their work though social networking and negotiated and 50/50 consensual photos and videos.
References:
Mountfort, P. (2018). Cosplay as Citation. In P. Mountfort, A. Peirson-Smith, & A. Geczy, Planet Cosplay. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press
Pop Genres 2020 