I Don't Wanna Grow Up: The Spirit of Dragon Con Atlanta
It was a sunny Saturday in Atlanta, and that sun was beaming.
If you're out there with a camera, shade isn't just about comfort. It's prime real estate. I needed somewhere I could get out of that sun and still have the light working for me.
I found my spot right at the edge of the Peachtree Street bridge near Ivan Allen Blvd. Good shade. Good angles.
I set up shop.
You could hear the parade before you could really see it.
Bands playing. People yelling. Music coming from these jumbo speakers attached to floats. It reminded me of a New York block party, except the block party was moving down Peachtree Street.
And somewhere in all that noise, here come these grown-a** kids.
I mean that with nothing but love.
Superheroes. Stormtroopers. Spartans. Monsters. Characters I knew immediately. Some characters I had absolutely no idea who they were.
And everybody was committed.
That's probably what I enjoyed photographing the most. Not just the costumes, but the commitment to the schtick.
Some of these weren't costumes somebody grabbed off Amazon Thursday night.
Nah.
People had clearly put some work into this.
Armor. Makeup. Props. Masks. Weapons. Tiny details that probably meant absolutely nothing to me but everything to somebody else standing along that parade route.
And when somebody recognized one of those details?
You could see it.
That's their people.
I'm a comic book movie fan, so none of this is completely foreign to me.
Superman in 1979 is the first movie-going experience I can remember. I was two years old.
Now, what I remember about the movie versus what's been reinforced over a lifetime- who knows- but Superman has been around for as long as I can remember.
And to this day, there's going to be a Superman T-shirt or hoodie somewhere in my repertoire.
That's about as far as I'm going, though.
I'm not putting on the cape.
I'm damn sure not squeezing into the tights.
But these folks?
They took it all the way.
And I love them for it.
There's something about watching a bunch of grown-a** people boldly march down Peachtree Street dressed as superheroes, villains, warriors, and whatever else their imagination came up with that makes you think about this whole idea of "growing up."
Because apparently nobody told these people they were supposed to stop playing. Or maybe somebody did.
They just didn't listen.
And I think that's what I really like about it.
We spend the first part of our lives playing pretend.
Give a kid a towel, and it's a cape. A cardboard box becomes a spaceship. A stick becomes a sword. Nobody needs to explain any of this to a kid.
Then somewhere along the way we're supposed to get serious.
Put the toys away.
Stop dressing up.
Get a job.
Pay some bills.
Act your age.
Then Dragon Con comes through Atlanta, and thousands of grown people basically say, "Yeah...nah."
And here's the funny part.
They didn't actually stop growing up.
They just got way better at playing.
Now the cardboard armor can be 3D printed.
Somebody knows how to sew.
Somebody knows makeup.
Somebody has spent months building a prop.
And, most importantly, somebody finally has some grown-up money to spend on the sh*t they wanted when they were twelve.
Maybe that's the real benefit of adulthood nobody tells you about.
You can finally afford better toys.
Standing there shooting, I kept thinking about that old Toys "R" Us jingle:
"I don't wanna grow up..."
Well, Toys "R" Us stores may be gone, but the Toys "R" Us kids are still here.
And I think that's what these photographs became for me.
They're obviously photographs of Dragon Con. They're photographs of costumes and characters and a parade running through downtown Atlanta.
But they're also photographs of grown people giving themselves permission to still have some damn fun.
Not by accident.
Not because their kids wanted them to.
Not worrying about whether somebody standing on the sidewalk thinks they're too old for these shenanigans.
They're marching right down Peachtree Street with it.
Boldly.
There's something I respect about that.
I'm still not putting on the tights, though.
Y'all got it.
I'll be over here in the shade with my camera...
...and probably a Superman T-shirt.
FROM THE SERIES
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Dragon Con — Atlanta, Georgia Photographs by D.J. Johnson
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