AS Photography
Jude White
Benoit Paille
‘Crossroad of Realities’ is a series of photographs by Benoit Paille, exploring the relationship between material and virtual reality. Paille takes photographs of the video game Grand Theft Auto 5, an open-world crime shooter by Rockstar North. Paille does not photograph scenes of violence or crime, however, taking the opportunity to explore the game’s convincing virtual world. Paille’s photographs are taken using a DSLR, not a screenshot system, which is designed to ‘erase the border between two worlds.’ Paille has stated that he waits in-game for interesting events such as lightning strikes. Paille has said that this, in theory, relates to Cartier Bresson’s work on the ‘Magic Moment,’ but Paille states that he does not want to wait for a magic moment; he wants to create one. He wishes to show players the game in ways they have not seen before.
‘Paille edits his photographs in Adobe Lightroom just as one would with a real photo, and the results are both convincing and beautiful. However, Paille does not only use virtual photography in this series. Following edits in Lightroom, Paille edits a hand holding some form of camera device into the image, being careful to illuminate the hands in the right light, add water etc. to match the photograph. Paille then edits the screen of the device to appear as though it is capturing an image of the game world. Paille seamlessly blends a virtual reality with reality itself, which makes for a fascinating series of photographs exploring how the two relate to each other.
Edits in Lightroom really bring out subtle details otherwise easy to miss in-game, such as dust particles. Paille has also clothed his model in orange to match the background. Interestingly, the hands in these images are almost all centrally or near-centrally framed, as if the viewer is the one taking the photograph and holding up the camera directly in front of them as a result.
In this photograph, Paille has captured a street scene much as a real photographer might. He has waited for the lights of the buildings in-game to be properly enhanced by a storm, generated by GTAV’s procedural weather system. He has used red and blue light on the hand to match the game lighting, and even added water to make it seem as though the hand is there in the rain.