PURE OBSESSION. Tanya Croft, the Tomb Raider Cosplayer

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Text: Ira Lupu

Photo: Kristina Podobed

Original project: http://tissuemagazine.com/series/tanya-croft/

Cosplayers often become a target for deep psychological analysis, in an attempt to expose their escapism, sexual deviations, childhood traumas and other messes leading to creation of fake identities. But Tanya Croft may prove that sometimes copying the protagonist’s looks is just passionate and lasting fun, yet with a pixilated twist.

‘What do you know about madness?’ — asks Alex Beyket, a 26-year old Eastern European IT-specialist. I assume I’ve learned something, but from the ordinary looks of this guy, I won’t ever tell he himself had faced something weird in life. Yet he did, as he dates Lara Croft, the Tomb Raider. Or, actually, her living embodiment in the flesh of Tatiana Sochivets, or Tanya Croft, who has been cosplaying the legendary video game bombshell for 10 years now.

‘Madness is when we suddenly leave our office duties and everyday routine behind, grab camera and several cosplaying outfits, and escape the city — to do a new photo shoot’, — explains Alex, who is not only Tanya’s boyfriend but also her permanent assistant, photographer, meticulous costume and accessory designer, and sometimes even cosplay partner (as Tomb Raider’s Kurtis Trent). Once, in a crusade for desirable pictures, Alex and Tanya have swum up to a real sunken ship — all holey, rusty, and rather dangerous to hang out in. Last time, they headed from their native Kyiv to the Southern part of Ukraine — and descended Odessa catacombs, extreme and tangled underground tunnels used by local partisans during the Second World War. Only to make a ‘Lara Croft: Reborn’-styled set, of course. It all still doesn’t sound that ‘mad’ in terms of the unfathomable, warped world we live in. But such mesmerisation by a virtual mass-culture heroine, and such living manifestation of Mikhail Bakhtin’s carnivalesque concept, may definitely seem peculiar to average working class minds.

So for Tanya, how did this whole thing with Lara start? ‘Quite simple. At the age of 15, I’ve tried to play Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness on my sister’s ancient PC, and since that time, I couldn’t stop’, — the cosplayer jabbers in her charming mix of rigid Russian language and melodical Ukrainian accent. ‘First, I’ve found tight black top and shorts, cut the fingers off my gloves, made the ponytail, though my hair was rather short… I didn’t know people do same things until I’ve found pictures of Jennifer Morgan, Lara Croft’s professional lookalike.’

The story makes me giggle, because I remember myself at the same age, making same ponytail with cheap styling gel and demonically seeking military boots and gun holsters — to bring real Tomb Raider to a backwater school party. And the clothes I pick today, they still often have something Croft-ish about them. But why this girl have gone so far, and I haven’t? Tanya Croft’s cheerfulness, and her innocently upright, a bit discursive manner of speaking leads to a thought that all this constant buzzing about cosplayers being all defective, lurking under fake identities to conceal their own injured personalities, is just another pile of bullshit. It seems like the babe is enjoying herself to the fullest. Becoming Tomb Raider for a while must be just another tool for feeling even more cool. And those among you that are without sin of copying something, or somebody (although in a less obvious way), may you cast a first stone at Tanya Croft.

But still, like a dull blood-seeking shark, I attempt to find the trigger. Maybe the image of Lara Croft gives Tanya some personal features she lacks? ‘Maybe, but just a little bit. It’s more like we have something in common initially. I’ve always had this straightforward, a bit masculine nature. At the same time, Alex calls me ‘a little bitch’. I don’t think I have any problems with own sexuality.’

‘Actually, being Lara is a very serious part of my life’, — Tanya proceeds. ‘Due to her, I’ve found my vocation, my loving and supportive boyfriend and even my previous job of a video game club administrator. Funnily enough, I’ve decided to quit because it didn’t leave me enough time for cosplaying. And no, cosplay is not my bread and butter, I don’t earn anything with it’. So it is all just determined fun? ‘Yeah, I would say so. There is no specific intention in this process for me. We’re simply trying to make our classical Lara better and better, and to keep up with the newest releases, like the recent ‘Rise of the Tomb Raider’. Perfecting my looks, costumes, photos… For the accurately detailed costumes Alex have made, I’ve been winning prizes from official Tomb Raider developers — that was nice, but still not an aim.’

‘I’ve lots of admirers, but some people think I’m totally nuts. Even my mother keeps telling me, like, come on, you’re 26 now, you’d better stop your disguise games and devote yourself to a family life. But I don’t care. I’m just obsessed.’