Each year on Oct 31, the freaks take over the streets of West Hollywood and turn Santa Monica Blvd into what is quite possibly the King Kong of all costume parties. This year, ChinaShop was there to capture the Chaos. Take a peak (if you dare).
Every couple months in Los Angeles, a few thousand people have a quaint get together titled simply, “HARD“. It is here were they are entranced by the finest envoy of eclectic electro this side of the Mississippi. Well, unless HARD is on rotation in New York.
In LA, you get quite a few options at Halloween-time, ranging from low key to BA-BLAM. There are the neighborhood dives with drink specials and scary movies on the telly. There are the swanky clubs, the “balls”, the costume parties in the hills. There is the Hollywood Forever cemetery’s Dia de Los Muertos festivities, the spoooky Griffith Park hay rides, and the haunted houses, too. All this is well and good, but if you want to catch some serious Halloween spirit, the annual West Hollywod Carnaval the the ultimate in fun.
A pupilometer is a device which is used by an ophthalmologist to test the response of a person’s pupil to visual stimuli. Ya know that hole in your eyeball that a friendly police officer tends to enjoy shining a light in when you’ve had 2 or 16 beers. It’s been determined that the amount of dilation of the pupil in the eye can be proportional to the amount of particular interest in a subject. The size of dilation indicates an increase in mental processes, but the speed of dilation can also be a sign of drug use or intoxication. I.e. Mr. Flashlight. HARD fest was this weekend in La-La land and I decided that this would be an opportune time to study this very phenomena my scientific self. But, with a camera flash. The following gallery I believe will duly support my early hypothesis: I believe the crowd will be very into the show and thus pupils will be dilated to reflect said peeked interest. Either that or as one police officer in attendance relayed to me, “These f#@king kids are whacked out of their GD minds”…
While The Con of Ages is now over and we’re home safe from the crowds and the smells, there is much to fondly look back on. Everyone can agree on one specific, delightful aspect of this event: costumed laydeez. Whether it’s the legions of Sailor Moons or the armies of Harley Quinns, there’s something irresistible about cute girls in costumes, especially when said costumes look like they took several days to make. As far as I’m concerned, the more DIY and elaborate the look, the better. After all, Comic-Con comes once a year.
(The ever-present naughty schoolgirls are also acceptable.)
To bring you this gallery, I spent much of my Friday and Saturday looking for dressed-up girls to document. Like shooting fish in a barrel, you say? Not so! It’s not easy to locate, stop, and pose amidst thousands of humans, all out on missions of their own. Still, my camera and I persevered. Enjoy!
The spirit of a movement lies in the hearts, and in this case the costumes, of its people. We say goodbye to this year’s Movement Electronic Music Festival with a look at the crazy characters who made it special.
Comic Com 09’ is a sea filled with bobbing pop-characters ranging from a black Scooby Doo to a white Darth Vader. A 4yr old “I Dream of Genie” to a 65yr old Wonder Woman. And we’re not just talking about your run of the mill store bought Halloween bullshit here either kiddos. While costume design can begin the gambit with a simple sponge paint Poke’mon t-shirt; it’s the 2 years in the making handmade cosplayer’s guise, which truly embodies a fan. Chris “Wayne”, we shall call him, just so happens to be one of those devotees.
I shot some 300 different pop-characters and saw easily over a couple thousand alt personas over the course of Comic Con 09’. But it was this variant of the caped crusader that stood out. I really wanted to know what it took to dress as Batman Beyond in time and character. Here’s what I found out.
Throughout the weekend at the San Diego Comic Con the Costumes are key. Without these dedicated fans, heros, villains and innocuous sidekicks combined, the Comic Con experience would not be complete. Here’s to all the crazy and the brave…may your deodorant be plenty and your seams be strong!
