The sharp rise of video game photography

At first glance, Ludovic ​‘Shinobi’ Helme’s images look almost normal. A rock, surrounded by stormy seas. An FBI agent, standing amid pine trees. A gritty close-up of a bloodied man. 

But look closer and things soon get decidedly fantastical. Futuristic cityscapes sit next to neon-drenched images of cyborgs with guns. A digitised version of French actor Léa Seydoux weeps in front of the camera; a girl explores a long-forgotten bunker in grainy black and white.

The pictures are diverse, but they all have something in common: they’re all scenes from a video game. Or, to be precise, Alan Wake 2, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn. Helme’s collection spans dozens of games, and thousands of images: the passion project of almost a decade. 

“I cannot play a game normally anymore,” he says. ​“It’s done. I’m going in the game just to shoot it now. That’s my life.”

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He’s not the only one. Ignored for years by the mainstream, video game photography is finally coming into its own – fuelled by quality graphics, dedicated photo modes put in by eager developers, and a rapidly expanding industry. 

There are even celebrity fans. Actor Jack Quaid regularly posts images from his favourite games to his 2 million followers, from titles such as Spider-Man 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Ghost of Yotei. Most recently, his photos of dolphins caught mid-leap, dramatic powder-keg explosions and men wielding flintlock pistols, courtesy of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, even prompted a response from developer Ubisoft.

“Amazing pics Captain Quaid,” they wrote, alongside several emojis. ​“We’re glad you’re enjoying sailing in the Caribbean!”

The subject matter is varied, as are the styles. Helme’s calling card is extreme close-ups of characters’ faces, but some photographers choose to focus on the beauty of the world around them: a deer grazing in a valley in Red Dead Redemption 2, or a night-time shot of Hogwarts castle, its windows glimmering, in Hogwarts Legacy. 

Photographer Leo Sang, meanwhile, varies between gritty first person shooter titles, and others like action RPG Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, his current obsession. ​“It’s basically [set in medieval] Bohemia,” he explains. ​“There was no photography during that time period, so I would imagine, ​‘How would I photograph Bohemia in the 12^th century?’”

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A photographer by trade, Sang first picked up his virtual camera in 2011, after a project that involved snapping the urban environments around his home in Brazil. He describes his style as ​“very casual” – though of course, casual is relative when you’re taking pictures of medieval knights in a fantasy simulation.

Another game that has proved a rich source of inspiration is Battlefield One, which takes place during the First World War. ​“I did a lot of work in Battlefield, especially with empty maps,” he adds. ​“Battlefield is all about the chaos, battlefield moments, explosions, vehicles all around you. 

“But my favourite activity was going to an empty server and exploring the map. Just walking across the map from point to point, end to end. Walking around, wondering, observing, being immersed in that ambience, in that specific map.”

In the 15 years he’s been in the space, Sang has seen the community come on leaps and bounds. ​“It’s much bigger,” he says. ​“And of course, it’s not necessarily my style of shooting. Everyone has their own styles, their own topics. I remember a small in-game photography community focused on trees and vegetation.”

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Virtual photographer mszombie.vp agrees. She first ventured into the gaming photography space over a decade ago, when it involved ​“memorising command codes to be able to procure a pleasing image in Skyrim”. 

These days, she’s photographed everything from Blood of the Dawnwalker to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, sharing images of everything from Velen sunsets to forktail dragons with her followers on Instagram. For her, virtual photography has become ​“a way to express my joy for games,” as well as a place of connection, and a space where she’s made close friends with fellow enthusiasts.

“To me, the community has not just become an outlet for my creativity, but also a place of comfort and long-lasting friendships,” she adds. ​“Most people are very friendly, supportive and just happy to be doing this (relatively niche) hobby with others.”

Video games have been around for decades, of course – the first-ever home console was released in 1972 – but for most of that time, the industry was working with decidedly rudimentary software. That changed around the turn of the century, with the advent of online gaming, 128-bit graphics and better processing power.

The first-ever game to include a photo mode is the subject of debate. Metal Gear Solid: Integral, which was released in 1999, featured a setting where players could take pictures of the game’s characters. But it was 2004’s Gran Turismo 4 that first introduced an exportable photo mode, letting players download and share images beyond the game’s confines.

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Those images were fairly basic ones: race cars on tracks that looked decidedly hampered by the graphics of the time. But that’s not the case anymore. 

These days, AAA games put out by studios boast almost photorealistic graphics, and over the past 10 years, photo modes have evolved from an eccentric add-on to the norm on many games, including Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, Resident Evil Village, and Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 

Even Rockstar’s upcoming mega-game, Grand Theft Auto 6, has confirmed the existence of an upcoming photo mode (though no details have yet been announced), and titles like Ghost of Yotei feature sophisticated settings that include a 12 – 300 mm focal range, 24‑hour time-of-day tools, weather controls, colour grading, and even tracking shots.

“Photo modes now offer much more control over cameras, lighting, depth of field, poses and even time of day, so people can create an image rather than simply capture a screenshot,” Alex, one of the founders of virtual photography forum gg frame, says.

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It’s clear that video game studios are leaning into it, too – as Helme says, ​“it’s obvious free marketing.” mszombie.vp recounts an experience where video game developers CJ Projekt Red used her images, among others, to promote the launch of their new improved photomode in The Witcher 3’s recent remaster, which she describes as a ​“great honour”. 

Meanwhile, artists like Helme have forged careers not just in taking images, but in working as a consultant to video game developers setting out to create or improve their own photo modes. Working on games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and Cyberpunk 2077, he’s offered advice, play tested photo modes and advocated for additions, such as a long camera range, that developers might not think to put in themselves.

“[Developers] have to understand that it’s really a different game we play,” he says. ​“So we need different gameplay in the photo mode.”

He adds, ​“Most of the dev teams will think about photo mode from a non-photographer perspective. You tell them to put some custom lights to light the scene. They will put just three… and they think it’s enough, but it’s not, because what we want is to relight the whole scene. We want 10,000 lights if possible.”

“It’s definitely a different thing we are doing. We are not playing the game anymore. We are playing our game.”

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And as the art form evolves, so too do the questions around it. Namely: can a piece of work still be art if it’s capitalising off the art already created by others? 

“The same can be said of many forms of photography: the creative contribution is in how you frame, interpret and present what is already there,” Alex argues. ​“For me, it’s about capturing the right moment. A beautiful game can give you a beautiful screenshot, but a strong image still needs composition, lighting, timing, colour and a clear idea behind it.”

Hulme agrees. ​“There is really no debate at all. It is full art. Period. It’s just like photography. The only thing that changes is that you do this in the virtual space, not in actual space.

“You don’t have to own a drone. You don’t have to own a studio for lighting. You don’t have to employ models or actors to do your shooting sessions. You can just do it. But what you do: the decisions you make, the focal, the depth of field, the coloration, the angle, everything is just photography.”

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These days, video game photography boasts its own magazine – The Photo Mode – online exhibitions, and even its own dedicated set of awards. The Photo Mode Awards was set up in 2025 to celebrate artists working in the space, while artists like Robert Overweg have had their work displayed in the Centre Pompidou and the 7^th Seoul international media art biennale. 

“In the beginning a lot of people thought what I was doing was silly,” Overweg captioned a collection of his oldest work. ​“Some still do.”

These days, that attitude has never felt more outdated. 

Vicky Jessop is a freelance journalist. Follow her on Instagram.

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