Game Art: Justin Berry's "Purple Dusk (Medal of Honor)" (2012)
"In playing violent, war-themed, video games, Berry chooses to act against the intention of the game designers. Turning aside from the battlefield he regards the world around him as a photographer in the tradition of Ansel Adams or Edward Weston. He captures the virtual space through numerous and overlapping screenshots, composing formal observations of these fictional worlds. From afar we take them for granted as traditional photographs, an index of something true. Only after seeing them up close, where their authenticity is undermined, are we able to appreciate and notice the details, such as the gun that has been left behind or the soldiers hiding behind the rocks, reminding us that the image is an index of something else altogether." (Interstate Projects)
Justin Berry (USA, 1980) lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. He received his BFA from The School of the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and TUFTS University in 2003, and his MFA from The School of The Arts Institute of Chicago in 2008. His work has been exhibited at The Pigeon Wing, the Deptford X festival in London, The Chelsea Art Museum and Interstate Projects in New York, The NEXT Fair and Rowland Contemporary in Chicago, and Barbara Davis Gallery in Houston, among other locations. From 2007-2008 he was the co-director of the artist-run curatorial space Alogon, in Chicago, IL. He currently runs the fictional exhibition space Waymaker Gallery.
Berry's first solo show Fissure and Facture takes place at Interstate Projects gallery (New York) between June 1st - June 30th 2012. Worth seeing if you believe, like us, the video game photographers are reinventing the wheel. Pardon, the carousel.
Here are more examples of Berry's phenomenal photographs:
As Hyperallergic's Hrag Vartanian explains,
"The small black and white “landscapes” were created with dozens of screenshots, which he tiled together to make a seamless scene. Berry has retained some “flaws” though — like rifles and soldiers from the original games — as if to remind us that we’ve colonized ever inch and pixel of the digital world" (June 12 2012)
Submitted by Matteo BIttanti (thank you, Neal!)