Freaks and Geeks Basking in the Tuscan Sun
Tuscan cross-media, cosplay and comic confab mingles Hollywood mega-players with manga masters
A photo essay by Salvatore Matarazzo
More than 250,00 ticket-buying fans descended upon this year’s Lucca Comics & Games held within the medieval walls of Lucca, a Tuscan town which Henry James once described as “overflowing with everything.”
Welcome to the Western world’s biggest geek meet.
By the numbers, Lucca’s four-day festival is the second largest geek culture event in the world. Only Tokyo’s Comiket which boasts more than a half million fans is bigger than this Italian celebration of fandom, cosplay, role-playing games, and the gigantic cross-media galaxy of comics. You heard right, Lucca Comics & Games is bigger than San Diego’s Comic-con.
Elephant Gun photographer Salvatore Matarazzo took to the streets to capture the convention in all of its glorious, yet somehow glamorous, geekdom.
Salvatore Matarazzo is a professional photographer born and based in Viareggio, Tuscany. His father conveyed in him the passion for photography since childhood, and after some years he stopped attending school to dedicate himself fully to photography.
Salvatore specializes in architectural photography but street is definitely his calling, and finds it’s the best way to express his personal skills and craft. He has worked for newspapers, photojournalism agencies and as freelancer. Salvatore is a member of ELEPHANT GUN, a global street photography collective based in Atlanta, GA.
ELEPHANT GUN is a global, contemporary collective telling compelling stories via multimedia. ELEPHANT GUN, headquartered in Atlanta, operates across 11 countries in more than 15 cities. Follow on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook.
All images (c) Salvatore Matarazzo. All rights reserved.
