No, This Poland Based LARP Group Did Not Dress Up As ‘Ohio’

I'm not going to lie, this is a bit disappointing.

Towards the end of May of this year (2022), a viral tweet was making the rounds claiming to show a LARP group from Poland roleplaying as Ohio:

The idea of an entire group of people LARPing a state was absolutely hilarious to me. By the way, LARP stands for Live Action Role Play. Determined to find out if this was true, I set forth down the rabbit hole.

Doing a quick Google search, I discovered a similar Reddit thread claiming the same thing: this Poland group just roleplayed as people from Ohio. On Reddit, they're marked as NSFW which is why they may appear blurry below:

While that didn't shed any light on whether or not it was true, I noticed that the format of the included post looked to be similar to Facebook. So, I took my chances.

Heading over to Facebook, I searched Rekografia and found this album:

Finally! I found the original post. Unfortunately, my discovery also led me to the fact that it was NOT about Ohio specifically but, instead, seemed to be focused on the 4th of July. Maybe it was both? I knew my journey was not over.

Turning to Instagram, I searched the same name, Rekografia, and found the original photographer. According to the profile, this photographer focuses on historical reenactment and LARP. You'll find photos of people dressed as knights, maidens, wizards, and more:

However, the photographer is based in Poland. I reached out hoping to hear back and, thankfully, I did! When I asked about the accuracy of the claim that the viral photos were about Ohio specifically, Rekographia replied with,

Maybe not from Ohio, but from some "every place”. All pics taken by me are about 4th of July larp. The story is that there is a 4th of July celebration and this is story about "lost dreams”.

Those who hate Ohio may claim that if you end up there, your life is, indeed, full of "lost dreams" but, I digress. There it was, confirmed. The photos are not of "Ohio". Although looking through them, it's a bit comical (and perhaps not far off base) to see how America might be perceived by the rest of the world. Or, at least one LARP group.

Also, this just goes to show that you can never trust what you see on the internet. What a fun ride that was.

Of course, if someone wanted to cosplay or LARP as Ohio, they would have plenty of inspiration. For example: