Photographer Reinis Hofmanis is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this portrait photography. From the ‘LARP’ project. To see Reinis’s body of work, click on any image.
Live action role playing games show the world that has been created under the impact of mass culture. Such elements of pop culture as films, books and computer games’ characters become someone’s new identity. Everyday life is changed into a parallel world – the world of fantasy, where future, past and present are not separated. Everything that does not seem possible in the real world is possible in a game. Office man, student, director of a hospital, nurse, militarist, jewelry trader, teacher becomes a sorcerer, ork, zombie, troll, elf, moss man or goblin. Dreams and desire to be a hero are realized and enacted.
The work balance between documental photo and staging. In the series “LARP” portrays his heroes outside the game context. Thus the space around them works as an interspace which creates a natural distance between these characters and the viewer.
The work exploring live action role players, questions: Is a mask just a mask or is it a part of person’s identity – a side of identity which can not be realized otherwise? What makes an office worker to take a huge axe and move deep in the bush? Why someone chooses to be an ork not a knight or some elf? Can we separate a fantasy world from the real world?
All images © Reinis Hofmanis
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By Reinis Hofmanis
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