Landscape Video Game

Some information about Street series

With this series, I tried a new approach in my shooting process. The concept is to shoot some pictures inside a videogame.

Motivation for in-game photography and the difference, between in-game-photography and real-world pictures

When mafia2 game was released, the city’s game (Empire Bay) got a fantastic atmosphere. The 2K studio designers ‘s work was so great ! As a photographer, I found this virtual aterial very rich. And I wanted to be able to photograph it.

It was a complete and coherent universe describing a U.S. city 40-50 years. As I was not born at that time, I imagine to be at the place of a photographer in the 40’s-50’s. The shooting in this game are quite similar to what we can do in the reality. The field of view of the game generally corresponds to a camera with two lenses : a 30mm and a 45mm lens. This is perfect to work in a street’s photography context.

Taking pictures in video Game

I took photographies by making screenshots and using several mods downloaded from the Internet (game modifiers program). I used a mod to hide my avatar, a mod to improve the textures... I decided to take photographies from the height of a real person (my avatar’s height). I wanted to experience the same problems when I have to shoot in a real city. When I photograph Paris, where I live, I could walk several hours taking pictures. I used the same method in the game. I spend many hours to capture the feel and atmosphere of the city (in about 5-6 months). I took about 10,000 shots, to finally select 100. I work my images, as I do for all my other photographic series, using editing software.

Work Inspiration

During the time I was doing the shooting, I often looked at the paintings of Edward Hopper. I tried to see how he painted the American city. How he let enter the light into the streets and buildings. I was also inspired by the photographers who worked on American city in the 30’s-50’s : Walker Evans, Berenice Abbott, Andre Kertesz and many others…

New work with the same process (videogame photography)