We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Stefanie Candelario a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Stefanie, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I’m a freelance Cosplay Photographer. I take portraits of everyday people dressed like their favorite characters from comics, anime/manga, or TV. I always enjoy seeing people look happy and feel more of themselves and hearing stories about how the character they’re dressing up relates to them in a positive light. With that, I always try my best to capture those moments for folks who want to cherish those life memories.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve enjoyed Photography for most of my life. When I was a kid, I would ask my dad to put on slideshows of photos he took for me to view. High School was a starting point for my photography career, as they offered a black-and-white photo class that was an elective we had to take. One day, one of my teacher’s old students came to speak with us and told us how she majored in photography and plans to be part of the industry. It opened up the possibility for me to study it even more. With that in mind, I applied to schools that majored in photography. Once in college, I signed up to be part of a publication called “Serpentine/Artifacts” Magazine, where a few students would get press passes to go to New York Comic Con and other conventions with a literature and art sense. 2009 was my first year attending NYCC, where I hung out with my old college friends at a convention and met different folks with similar interests. I’ve always been interested in anything superhero-related, and whatever was imported from Japan was allowed here in the States, but I never met many folks who would like it. It always felt like I had to hide myself from others. That’s when I started slowly thinking about ways to express my love for it, but from a photography stance. Until 2019, I only went to NYCC as a spectator and took random shots of people dressed up. Some of them saw their photos on my camera on the preview screen and liked the photo so much that they asked if I could send it to them. Once things opened again in 2021 after the shutdown due to COVID-19, I decided to go ahead and take a full dive. I made an Instagram photo account, collected people’s information, and started sending images and tagging them on my page for people to see. One of the things that I have an advantage over is I’m one of the very few female photographers in the community. Sadly, there are a few male photographers who are part of the cosplay community would only take photos for their entertainment and pleasure and wouldn’t release them. I often hear stories of female cosplayers feeling uncomfortable if a male photographer asks them to do something they’re uncomfortable with. Those I work with should feel it’s a safe space where they won’t be judged for whichever character they’re cosplaying as and accept and respect them. I am proud of how I can bring more people close together and showcase how fun and unique cosplaying can be. I organized one shoot in September of 2024, the first organized shoot I’ve ever done; I brought together a group of cosplayers, most of whom had never met, and instantly clicked. The shoot was characters from an Anime/Manga Series called “My Hero Academia,” which I had organized and planned right after the last chapter of the series was released in August of 2024. I wanted to commemorate the completion of the series, and this was the only way to show it. Within an hour of meeting, everyone clicked and got along as if they’d been friends for years. Even two of the cosplayers started to date shortly after the shoot because they connected so intensely and shared many common interests during the shoot. It still stuns and makes me smile each time I look back at that shoot, and it does remind me of what I love doing: cosplay photography. It’s also leading me to expand my Photography to do events at Japan Society, a Non-For-Profit Organization that provides Japanese events, film, culture, and art and language classes. I’ve taken photos of the events and culture of the most prominent people from Japan. One of them is Jake Adelstein, the reporter who inspired the HBO Max series “Tokyo Vice,” and Japanese director Ishii Gakuryu, who directed “The Box Man” and “August In The Water.”

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I spread the word about myself and social media platforms through word-of-mouth by attending as many events and conventions as possible. Some cosplayers and photographers will organize small meet-ups for photographers and cosplayers to get together at a location and create as much content as anyone can outside of a convention. Word of mouth spreads fast if you’re well-liked in the community.

We’d love to hear about how you keep in touch with clients.

During shoots, people would tell me stories about how they got into cosplay and why they wanted to cosplay each character. I often ask them what other cosplays they want to do next. They would tell me, and I would tell them immediately to go for it. I also like to encourage people to be more creative with their cosplays because it still shows the passion and hard work they put into them, and I want to make sure I capture each moment perfectly. And if they don’t like the shot or the way the shots are edited, I always give them the option to reshoot the shot or re-edit an image free of charge because, at the end of the day, I want them to be happy and satisfied with the photos.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.stefaniecandelario.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scphotodesign25/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StefanieCandelarioPhotoandDesign
• Other: BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/scphotodesign25.bsky.social
  Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/user/scphotodesign25/

Image Credits

Personal photo by Jonathan Lee
Behind the Scenes photos from Maria Moran (grassy photo), Klar Posadas (train), and Joseph Depaola (rooftop)