Finally the book arrived ! I ordered Geekology : The Cosplay Photography of Jay Tablante last year but since it's coming from Philippines, it took close to a month. Now, Jay Tablante should not need an introduction for the cosplay photography he does. Actually, I think I'm doing him an injustice just calling him a photographer. Artist is better suited word. In my eyes, he uses photography as just one element of his craft. Maybe a better term is photo-illustrationist ? Maybe. At the end of the book is a quote from Jay "I've always been a frustrated illustrator. The camera become my pencil."
- more photos after the jump -
The book traces through his early works and finishes up with a section just called "Images". Some of the images have behind the scene photos - those are my favorites - love the behind the scene stuff - even in movies, I would watch the extras and all that. He's definitely taken cosplay photography into another realm. His production brings together makeup artists, production designers, CGI, digital imaging. Truth is, these should belong on comic book covers !
One thing I was surprised was at how much comic cosplay was in the book. Since the Philippines is in the Far East, I naturally assumed there'll be more anime-related cosplay. Reading the book, Jay talked about paying tribute to what inspired him as a kid - comic books. Makes sense.
At 88 page and at 8.25" X 8.25", I was a bit disappointed how short and small the book was. Then again, I've noticed that books from Asia tend to be smaller than what I'm used to here in the United States. For example, one of my favorite books is the Watchmen portraits done by Clay Enos. 192 pages at 4.5 pounds and measuring 14" x 10". That was a book !
Compared to the Watchmen book, Geekology that it looks like a pamphlet. I really wanted to see Jay's work in a large format so yes, kinda disappointed. Other than the size itself, the book is an amazing historical look at Jay's work. If you have a chance to pick one up, do so !
Available on Amazon.com
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