Gaming Projects: Photography

The spaces and places that video games create are often designed with a particular interaction or way to progress through them. However, because games are open to the player, how you play, the direction you move and what you do in the game is up to you.

This means that you can often put video games to unusual uses. Photography is one aspect of this as Paul Buttle recently highlight on Twitter. All modern video game consoles enable you to capture an image of the screen. At a rudimentary level this allows you to take pictures of your adventures. Beyond this, many games offer a Photo mode that allows you to freeze the action and take control of the camera -- even letting you control effects, depth of field and shutter speed in some cases.

This means you can take really beautiful and engaging pictures in the games you play. Some families have tasked their expert players with capturing a certain type of photograph as they play:

• Portraiture - capture images of the people you meet.
• Photojournalism - create a photo diary of the events of the game to be annotated later.
• Fashion - document the different outfits and wardrobe styles your character chooses.
• Sports - capture sporting moments, including not only players, but the crowd and coaches.
• Still Life - capture the inanimate, mundane and overlooked elements that make the game world what it is.
• Architectural - find ways to photograph the buildings in various states of build, decay and renewal.

• Gone to the Rapture photojournal.
• The Last of Us photojournal.
• The Last Guardian photojournal.
• Grand Theft Auto photojournal.
• Witcher 3 photojournal.

This list includes 36 games from the last 24 years, with 487 likes. They come from a range of different genres and play-styles and are all good games if you want to practice photography.