They don't look like me

Manuel (28) poses with his grandparents in their bedroom in Livorno, Tuscany, Italy. Manuel works as a butcher and has been practicing cosplay since 2018; in the photo he plays Spider-Man, a Marvel Comics character.

The idea that we can change identity by changing our appearance is as old as body consciousness. From theatre to carnival, from religious festivals to initiation rites, the transformation of our appearance is ingrained in our psyche.

The phenomenon of cosplay is perhaps its most contemporary manifestation, embodied by digital natives. The term comes from the abbreviation of “costume + play” that is, “costume play,” and the expression refers to both the act of dressing up and the costume itself.

Vandana (22) poses with her family in the living room of their room in New Delhi, India.
Vandana is studing fashion design and has been practicing cosplay since 2022.
In the picture she is playing Auriel the main character of the video game Diablo

Cosplay originated at comic book conventions in Japan in the early eighties, as a result of the popularity of Japanese animation and manga. Those who practice cosplay have an intense online life and devote their free time almost exclusively to this practice, which becomes a parallel life in every respect.

In the project “THEY DON’T LOOK LIKE ME,” Niccolò Rastrelli investigates this phenomenon, which originated in Asia but has now spread worldwide.

Ren (21) and his father Atsushi (57), pose together with their grandfather at their home in Ibakari, Japan;
Ren is still trying to discover what he wants to do in life and has been practising cosplay for 4 years.
Atsushi is the director of Ibaliger and has been practising cosplay for 20 years,
Ibaliger are the characters they are playing, invented by Atsushi, good humanoids who through events for children and others try to teach good manners.

In cosplay, the body no longer aspires to a stereotypical standard of beauty but must be compulsively seen, looked at, photographed, and shared by everyone through social media and beyond.

The various incarnations of the phenomenon are told through a series of portraits, where young protagonists interpret characters that exist only in virtual worlds, allowing them to explore new identities for fun, but also to better understand themselves and their own personalities.

Brenda (24), poses with her mother and brother in their living room in Thika (Kenya); she is a student and has been practicing Cosplay since 2018. In the photo she plays the female version of “Chainsaw Man" the protagonist oh the manga “Chainsaw Man”.

Drawing inspiration from John Olson's photographs published in Life in the 1970s, I portrayed cosplayers as rock stars together with their family to emphasize the contrast not only generational but metaphorical between social identity, represented by mom and dad, and individual identity, told through fictional characters.

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