IN-GAME PHOTOGRAPHY AS A NEW FORM OF ART

Abstract

The subject of this article is in-game photography, which exists as a part of our lifestyle for some time already, but struggles to become recognized as an independent form of art. Classic photography in its time managed to establish itself as a new type of art that is equal to painting and sculpture. As for in-game photography, the situation is much more complicated. If the goal of an ordinary photo is to capture the ordinary world, as something that can only be seen with a camera lens, then what is the purpose of an in-game photo if it can exist there only within the framework of some new, man-made world, inside a video game?
Nowadays, there is only a small amount of research devoted to such a genre of art as in-game photography. I am trying to correct that problem by analyzing the in-game photography, its connection to its classical predecessor, and formulating the central idea of that genre. I also will try to build an approximate way of in-game photography development as a form of art in the future, using the scheme of how culture is developing and formed by human minds. I will compare it to already known forms of perceiving in-game photography as an art and provide some ways of how humanity will perceive media art in the nearest future by describing already known in-game photography studies, various genres of in-game photography, and art contests.