I first met Ejen Chuang at Anime Expo ’08.  He had his own photo booth by the entrance of the convention center.  I was amazed that with all the professional photography equipments he had, he was doing everything by himself, no assistants at all.  That meant that when he had to take a restroom break, he asked one of the attendees to watch his stuff. Talk about trusting a stranger!  Chuang is a Texas native and learned his photography skills by working with seasoned photographers.

It has almost been two years since I met Chuang and he still sets up booths at Anime Conventions.  But this time around, it’s not for photography, it’s to promote his first book: “Cosplay In America.”  His first stop of the tour was at FanimeCon where the book sold out on day 2. Fanime consisted of 4 days of fun for my fellow nerds so Chuang took orders from the attendees for the next 2 days and offered to ship the book for free. I recently caught up with Chuang and chatted about his experience making “Cosplay In America.”

Ejen at the launch party!

NERDSociety (NS) :  Were you into cosplaying before starting the project?
Ejen Chuang (EC): No, I’ve never cosplay though I’ve been aware of it since I was 18. You can’t go to conventions without knowing about it !

NS:  First time I met you was in AX 08, what fascinated you about the event?
EC: The reason I went to AX was they moved it to LA. The last time I went to AX I had to drive down to Orange County for it. I already knew what AX was about and since I was out of the scene for a number of years, I decided to go check it out – but with my own equipment. Reason being is I’ve seen enough photos of cosplayers taken at a con and I figured I’ll just bring my own background and lights.

Funny enough the book project didn’t come to mind til later – I really wish I had model releases for some of the cosplayers I photographed in ’08.

NS:  About how many pictures have you taken for the project?
EC: Honestly, I don’t know how many photographs. I know I photographed a bit over 1,600 cosplayers and if you figured minimum 5 photos per person, then over 8,000 images. More than likely, it is probably closer to 13,000 or more.

NS:  What’s the most memorable event and why?  The worst?
EC: They were all memorable in their own way. Some cons I had never even to me before, not even the city where they were held at. Each has its own personality. The most memorable in cosplay is at AnimeFest, when I saw a Rick Hunter/Lynn Minmay in their “default” outfit.  In the series, Rick wore his orange/blue jump suit for probably just 2 episodes. Most Robotech cosplay tend to be his military jumpsuit that you see for the next 20-something episodes. The worst experience is the moment I found out the airlines lost one of my equipment. It was a rental equipment so I didn’t own it but that piece cost close to $500.

NS:  When you travel to different locations for events do you usually take a plane or drive? It seems like you have a lot of equipment to bring.
EC: If it is in-state, I drive, out of state I fly. I carry power pack, lights with me because more than likely I wouldn’t be able to rent the gear out there. So I rented the main equipment in LA and paid for extra baggage. I did rent c-stands, carts and bought background paper at each location – some equipment is just too big to carry on airplanes.

NS:  Planning to shoot in Japan soon?
EC: I’ve shot in Japan but never cosplayers. I like to do that one day…also Russia and Brazil for their cosplayers.

NS:  Besides, photography what else are you into?
EC: Photography is pretty much my life. I devoted everything to it. I hate to say this but if I had a girlfriend, she would come second. I moved to LA because of photography. I bought my car for photography reasons. My life revolves around photography. Instead of buying a big screen TV, I rather spend it on photo equipment. Photography is a very difficult field. It is like acting. The majority of actors in SAG makes less than $20,000 a year. I can easily tell you it is very similar in the photography field.

NS:  Was it tough to get funds for the project since it’s been a long project?
EC: Luckily I had credit cards. And for the book, I took out a loan from a credit union. If I had the time, I would have search for grants.

NS:  How did you choose which pictures were going to be in the book?
EC: Because 90% of the cosplay I don’t recognized (I’ve been out of the anime scene for many, many years) , it came down to pose/expression/color scheme and how the images play off each other. I wasn’t just looking for the best, as some cosplays were store-bought or online bought. I was looking for the images to grab me. Something in their eyes, some gut reaction.

And I didn’t just want to throw images into the book. I sat around for 6 months trying different combination to make the book flow right. Think of it as a mixtape. You want some high moments, some quiet moments, like a rollercoaster ride.

NS:  Any final words to your fans?
EC: Final words ? I honestly could not have done it with the help of cosplayers across the country. On my Facebook/MySpace/Twitter I would ask questions and get responses. I hope I do it justice to cosplayers and my wish is that the book remains sort of a historical guide to what cosplay was like in 2009. As you know, cosplay will keep growing and techniques will change. I’m excited to see how cosplay in 2030 will be like compared to today.

End Of Interview

I want to thank Ejen for the interview and congratulate him on the book.

To learn more about “Cosplay In America”, please checkout his site.  You can also follow him on Facebook as he travels through U.S on his book tour.

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