Socially-Distant Cosplay In The Age Of Covid

There hasn’t been much cosplay to feature here in 2020 for obvious reasons, but have you ever wondered that when people do get together for a shoot, how it all works in an age of lockdowns and social distancing?

This Watch Dogs Legion shoot by So Say We All got me thinking that exact question, since it took place in London, not exactly a great Covid-related place to be right now, and also in some very public locations. So I asked him how cosplayers and his work process have changed since the pandemic hit.

“I’ve done five shoots in the last couple of months”, he tells me, and there are a few rules he has in place that are there to help everyone out, from cosplayers to the public around them. Firstly, the shoot must be outside or well-ventilated. Second, it has to feature as few people as possible, meaning stuff like no friends or assistants (though he will sometimes take the latter on night shoots).

Masks are worn at all times by photographer and assistants, and everyone keeps two metres socially-distant, even when shooting. “This can be difficult when trying to explain a pose”, he says, “Even with minor things, like I don’t show the back of the camera to the model anymore to avoid unnecessary proximity, or with a recent shot I had to use a long lens to give the illusion of proximity between a subject and assistants as zombies.”

As for shooting in public, he says the authorities were fine with everything since they were maintaining social distancing, and while there would sometimes be slight issues like folks wanting to take a photo with a cosplayer, for the most part people “kept their distance well enough and were polite.”

Anyway, I thought that was pretty interesting! But the point of chatting in the first place was this fantastic Watch Dogs Legion cosplay by evilcleverdog shot on the streets of London, and which you can check out below: