Some of you may remember Kevin Lillard and his “Fan’s View” website and remember him photographing cosplayers at many conventions. After a decade of photographing cosplayers at numerous conventions (including Anime Central) he retired from convention photography in 2009. He had a rough year in 2006 when he fell ill at Ohayocon, and there was an outpouring of support which led him to continue his work until 2009.
Although http://www.fansview.com is gone, all the memories live on here, he still hold prestige in the cosplay community and beyond. For those of you who don’t know of Kevin Lillard, he is an iconic cosplay photographer, for which there is no replacement.
Here is an interview that Anime News Network posted back in 2005.
It’s sad to report that our friend Kevin has fallen on hard times, and is homeless and jobless. His recent Facebook post outlines his struggle.
A few of us over at Old Timey Cosplayers, did our best to get the word out, and I think we reached a lot of people, however we need to reach everyone we can.
Here is how you can help:
Help him find a job and forward his LinkedIn profile to any prospects!
ACParadise is accepting donations for Kevin Lillard.
UPDATE! 10/12/2102
Update! Thanks to everyone who donated to Kevin Lillard. He is currently back on his feet and shares this message:
“The old saying of how things are darkest just before the dawn has been proven true with my amazing experiences of ghe last day. It’s humbling to have to beg and even more humbling to see the outpouring of support in my case. The donations through PayPal have been far beyond anything I could have expected. There’s far more than enough to get me back on my feet and housed for a long time, so I won’t need anything else. If you want to make a donation now, find a local charity that offers real help to the homeless, because there are countless people on the streets who have nothing close to the network of friends that I learned hat have. Fortunately the size of the ggenerosity that you have shown will make it possible for me to send some of the donations to an umbrella agency in this area that works to help the homeless, so they’ll be better prepared to assist those who seem to be in a hopeless predicament. Again, many many thanks.”
