cosplay: zoom in
Paweł Jaszczuk
online exhibition
cosplay: zoom in
Paweł Jaszczuk
From 02.02.2026
Curator: Maja Czechowicz
Closeness. Color. Gaze.
“cosplay: zoom in” is a photo series about taking control of one’s image – and what still slips beyond it.
Behind the costume lies both escape and discovery. Cosplayers become someone else while revealing themselves. The portraits capture moments of transformation – between the “self” and the fantasy, between the mask and the truth.
The close-up allows us to look straight into the face: into subtle emotions, into the tension between everyday life and the dream world. Here, the disguise becomes not only a costume, but also a tool for expressing what is difficult to show in daily life – courage, joy, fear, self-confidence, and experiments with one’s own identity.
Cosplay combines creativity, craftsmanship, and fun with a desire for escape, exploration, and transformation.
These portraits offer no judgment or commentary – only an observation of the human need to find oneself.
Each face becomes a testament to the boundary between the real and the imagined, between the mask and the true “self”.
Cosplayers create themselves with precision. Cosplay is “a form of role and identity transformation – from an ‘ordinary person’ to a ‘superhero.’”
But it’s not just playing dress-up. “The practice of cosplay is a way of shaping one’s own identity.” So it’s not about the mask, but about choice: I choose the color of my eyes, I choose myself, I choose the image I allow the world to see.
Paweł Jaszczuk’s camera captures the results of these transformations, focused on the colourful gazes of the characters.
Each gaze becomes a moment of encounter, in which observation subtly turns into experience, and the mask reveals as much as it conceals.
Paweł Jaszczuk
(born 1978 in Warsaw) a graduate of the School of Visual Arts in Sydney (2004). He lives and works between Warsaw and Tokyo. His work focuses on contemporary culture, identity, and everyday rituals, often revealing tensions between the worlds of labour, consumption, and fantasy.
Jaszczuk’s works have been presented at numerous solo and group exhibitions, including Zen Foto Gallery in Tokyo, Leica Gallery in Warsaw and Vienna, and during the Triennial of Photography in Hamburg.
He is the author of many photo albums, including Salaryman, Kinky City, High Fashion, and ¥€$U$. The sherbet head photo series presented as part of the cosplay: zoom in exhibition was created in 2025 in Tokyo.
About the project
The online exhibition module was developed as part of the project “Digital Photography Center Fort: Digital Transformation of the Resources and Offer of the Fort Institute of Photography”, co-funded by the European Union under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (KPO) through the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) – NextGenerationEU, as part of investment A2.5.1 “Program to Support Entities in the Cultural and Creative Sectors to Stimulate Their Development.”