source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosplay

Cosplay (コスプレ kosupure^?), short for "costume play",^[1] is a type of performance art in which participants don costumes and accessories to represent a specificcharacter or idea. Characters are often ^[2] drawn from popular fiction in Japan, but recent trends have included American cartoons and Sci-Fi. Favorite sources includemanga, anime, tokusatsu, comic books, graphic novels, video games, hentai and fantasy movies. Any entity from the real or virtual world that lends itself to dramatic interpretation may be taken up as a subject. Inanimate objects are given anthropomorphic forms and it is not unusual to see genders switched, with women playing male roles and vice versa.

I've started photographing cosplayers in 2010, enjoying the visually rich experience. It's a perfect mixture of performance and portrait photography, where you can both experiment new ideas and concepts, and refine your technique in many ways.

My goals are to deliver good images and to innovate in the field, adding proper locations and effects, importing ideas from conceptual photography and other fields, like album covers and illustrations.

Just as Cosplay is a mixture of arts and skills, and I think cosplay photography must be the same: creativity, anticipation (as in sports and performance photography), location scouting, character knowledge, artistic inspiration, personal style... ...all of these factors must play a role to produce unique yet appropriate pictures.

I usually attend all the major Cosplay events in Italy (Lucca Comics and Games, Romics, Cartoomics), and many other events in my area. I am also available for sets on location, but if you plan to ask me for some pictures, be ready to answer hundreds of questions about your character, its environment and artwork, and to travel a lot to reach some breathtaking location.