Travis De Valle, Night Crusaders (PEOPLE 2023)

At night, beneath the city lights of Melbourne, there exists a secret community: costumed crusaders who gather not only in the name of justice, but to share their passions and interests with one another. In this series I aimed to capture Melbourne’s cosplay community; a unique collection of designers, models, students, office workers, and many other walks of life who are all united by their love of creating and wearing their cosplay creations. This community spends countless hours assembling their creations and a few times a month they gather in meet-ups organised through social media to showcase, share and support their latest creations with one another. In photographing this community I have been able to develop my portraiture skills, creating a style that focuses on deep contrast and vibrant colours to reflect the hidden nature of this community and its colourful range of personalities and characters, from all walks of life.

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.