Awesome Photographs of American Geeks in the Wild

By Emily Temple

Aug. 9, 2012

Jake Warga is an anthropologist who specializes in the American Geek. The freelance journalist and photographer, whose work we recently spotted over at Wired , has traveled all around the world, but the weirdest creatures he has found have mostly been right here in the US — at events ranging from ComicCon to Cat Expo. “People always ask others, ‘What do you do?’ They should be asking, ‘Who are you?'” he explains. “A lot of people have shitty jobs, but once a year they get together and you get a glimpse of their personalities. You can find the toughest dude, but I bet he’s got a model train set in his basement.”

Warga, who asks his subjects first to pose as if for a passport photo, and then lets them do whatever they want, has shot everyone from comic book nerds to zombies to cat ladies to porn stars — each their own special form of geek. Click through to see a few amazing photos of American geeks in their element, and then head over to his website to check out even more work.