Snakes hang from a wooden cabinet marked with the Chinese characters “poisonous snake”, at a snake soup shop ahead of the Spring Festival in Hong Kong January 29, 2013. (Photo by Bobby Yip/Reuters)

A Minion character dressed in a Christmas theme is pictured in Times Square during unseasonably warm weather on Christmas Eve in the Manhattan borough of New York, December 24, 2015. (Photo by Carlo Allegri/Reuters)

A child dressed as an Ewok character participates in a Star Wars parade in Mexico City, Saturday, October 15, 2022. (Photo by Marco Ugarte/AP Photo)

Actor Sophie poses on September 5, 2022 in various locations in character at the Goodwood Race Track ahead of next week Goodwood's Revival meeting (16-18 September). (Photo by Peter Tarry/The Times)

This picture taken on June 18, 2025 shows a woman posing for a picture next to the character Mokoko as she visits Pop Mart's theme park Pop Land in Beijing. (Photo by Pedro Pardo/AFP Photo)

“The Pugs of Westeros” sees Roxy, Blue and Bono playing doggy versions of the main characters, including conniving King Joffrey. The pugs’ owners, Phillip Lauer (57) and his wife Sue (47), have been dressing their pugs up as characters from cinema and TV since they were puppies. They jumped at the chance of creating a picture series based on one of their favourite shows. Sue spent two weeks just creating the Iron Throne alone but it was well worth it. (Photo by Phillip Lauer)

Policemen look at a wax figure of Rowan Atkinson, dressed as his popular television character Mr. Bean, on display outside a wax figure museum in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, August 24, 2014. (Photo by Alex Lee/Reuters)

Austrian photographer Klaus Pichler has come up with an interesting and creative take on portrait photography – his photo series “Just The Two Of Us” features portraits of people dressed as their cosplay alter-egos. What’s fun about this series is that it seems to combine the costumed characters and the people wearing them, as the sometimes-fearsome characters are photographed in the relatively tame safety of their own homes.