Here’s something you don’t see everyday. ‘Just the Two of Us’, photographer Klaus Pichler’s latest project, introduces us mere mortals to the private dwellings of Austrian cosplayers. Pichler’s images of extravagant costumers contrasted with domestic activities merge the worlds of fantasy and reality for a revealing insight into the day-to-day lives of normal people seeking an alias,

“Who hasn’t had the desire just to be someone else for awhile? Dressing up is a way of creating an alter ego and a second skin which one’s behaviour can be adjusted to. Regardless of the motivating factors which cause somebody to acquire a costume, the main principle remains the same: the civilian steps behind the mask and turns into somebody else…’Just the Two of Us’ deals with both: the costumes and the people behind them.”

Melissa Zheliba