In “They Don’t Look Like Me”, the Italian artist Niccolò Rastrelli investigates the worldwide phenomenon of cosplay through a series of uncanny portraits made in Italy, Japan, Kenya and India.

In recent years, the phenomenon of Cosplay has been expanding across continents. The term, which comes from the abbreviation for ‘costume + play’, has its origin still highly debated: if in North America in the 1960s, when Star Trek and Batman fans dressed up, or in Japan in the early 1980s, as a result of the popularity of Japanese animation and manga. Fans immerse themselves in digital spaces, embodying characters from anime, comics, and video games—not just for fun, but to explore identity in an era where presence online matters more than physical beauty.

Inspired by John Olson’s 1970s Life magazine photos, on which rock stars were photographed with their mothers, Rastrelli captures his unique heroes in their family homes, illustrating the contrast between social and individual identity while showcasing cosplay as a universal, cross-generational phenomenon. With a sense of humor and a quiet power hidden in its simplicity, the project offers a fresh and touching perspective on self-expression and belonging in modern society.

/ They Don’t Look Like Me is an exhibition in collaboration with Centre for Comics and Interactive Narrative.

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» GET TO KNOW THE ARTIST «

Niccolò Rastrelli is an Italian documentary photographer and portraitist who approached photography during university, when he acquired a camera by collecting supermarket points. Since then, his work has focused on people, revealing a certain sense of humour, combined with authenticity and lightness. His project “They don’t look like me” quickly went global with exhibitions in Cortona, Lucca and Hamburg, and features in magazines like Stern and Newsweek Japan. Fotofestiwal will be the first to present his work to the Polish audience, alongside with a new chapter of his project, soon to be made in Poland.