All the World’s a Stage（2026）
All the World’s a Stage is a photography project inspired by MCM Comic Con, London’s largest comic and pop culture convention. Drawing on cosplay and ACG culture, the project explores identity as a form of performance and examines how individuals actively construct, inhabit, and express different versions of themselves.
Inspired by Shakespeare’s idea that “all the world’s a stage,” the project views identity as something fluid rather than fixed. Comic conventions become spaces where people can temporarily step beyond their everyday roles and embody characters they admire, creating opportunities for self-expression, transformation, and belonging.
The project pays particular attention to the diversity of the cosplay community, including Animegao Kigurumi performers, cross-gender cosplayers, and disabled participants. Through the act of cosplay, individuals are able to choose how they wish to be seen and present themselves to the world on their own terms.
Combining documentary photography with surreal digital manipulation, All the World’s a Stage blurs the boundary between reality and fiction, reflecting the feeling of multiple dimensions coexisting within the same space. Rather than viewing cosplay as escapism, the project presents it as a creative act of identity formation, suggesting that we are all performers continuously shaping and expressing ourselves on the stage of everyday life.