Kami-Con

The University of Alabama had quite the awakening a few months ago when Kami-Con descended upon campus. The time I spent photographing the majority of participants left me realizing the sheer leaps and bounds I had come outside of my own comfort zone.

I've always been interested in video games, anime, cartoons, etc, but never to the point I'd be willing to dress up and cosplay.

If you don't know what cosplaying is let me give you a brief summary from the internet:

• cosplay - (Costume Play): A very popular activity during anime conventions, also referred to as masquerading. It consists of dressing up as an anime or video game character to participate in contests or simply for fun

www.animeacademy.com/fut.php

Essentially, thing of your favorite cartoon from your childhood (Dragonball Z for example). Now, imagine seeing girls and guys alike dressed up as Goku, Vegeta, or Nappa for an entire day.

That image is either completely awesome for some or undeniably unsettling for others. I say this to point out that even though I enjoyed the convention I still felt a small culture-shock. It's one thing to see this on the internet, but to witness it in person is different. In comparison to the average person whose self-conscious about what they are wearing at the moment, individuals who participate in cosplay fully immerse themselves in their role becoming the character inside and out.

Another interesting note was the willingness of everyone to be photographed. Impromptu photography is never easy, but in this situation most individuals there were use to people asking them for photographs. The more noticeable your costume, the more attention you received. This took out most of the brunt work of convincing people if they would like to be featured on my site. Still, this did not quell those awkward instances (for me anyway) when I had to walk up to someone to ask for a photograph.

Even after an hour into the convention I still felt the pure immediacy of my culture shock. Maybe it was more so outright fascination or disbelief of some of the occurrences at the convention.

You just can't fully appreciate watching a grown college student walk around in a cow suit playing Smash Bros. or a girl carrying a makeshift rifle/cannon/bigger than my entire body-gun until you've seen it for yourself.

Hopefully, checking out some of the pictures will give you a little insight,

To check out more from Kami-Con click HERE.