The rise of in-game photography has left people asking: when is a screenshot a photograph and is it ever art?

Source: The photographer subculture inside Fallout, GTA and Left 4 Dead

This is a piece written by Richard Moss, after an interview with me about why I create images in Second Life. I do not keep them to myself: they can be seen in my Flickr stream.

The article has now been published on Hopes&Fears, a website about life and culture. It includes interviews with other photographers in other games and worlds, though Richard was not sure why Second Life did not get full billing alongside the others. I find it personally very interesting to read what motivates others, and their relationship with creativity.

Richard says; ‘A photograph of a virtual world is essentially a collaboration between the designers and artists who created the space and the photographer who chooses what to capture and how’. That is exactly my view. But there is always more to (sub)culture than individuals though, and I believe that dynamic is important. Culture is a process, not a thing or an object. There are many connections, all dynamic, between those who create spaces, those who create images and those who write about them.

That latter category is the one thing I want add to the article about myself. I photograph to create a resource which I can use to analyse and write about. This blog is more important than the Flickr stream.