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Using a Red One camera and an unusual recording system, the documentary photographer has created still images showing gamers playing video games.
ROBBIE COOPER'S COMPELLING PORTRAITS OF ADOLESCENTS PLAYING VIDEO GAMES, WHICH APPEARED LAST November in The New York Times Magazine, are part of an ambitious and unusual project called Immersion. A former photojournalism Cooper plans to film hundreds of adults and children as they immerse themselves in movies, TV programs and video games.
The point of the project, given the quantity of footage Cooper expects to shoot and the time he is spending, is not just to produce a collection of compelling images. Cooper's mission is artistic and academic, anthropological and philosophical. As he explains, more and more of the human experience is simulated by the screen-born media and messages that surround us. He is interested in how that hyper-reality is constructed: how viewers navigate the ubiquitous media, and use it to shape their own experiences internally.
What makes the study possible - and the images so compelling - is Cooper's camera perspective. He borrows filmmaker Errol Morris's so-called lnterrotron technique to record his subjects straight on from the viewpoint of the TV and computer screens that they are watching. He uses the 4K Red One camera, recording ultra high-definition video footage from which he can pull still images.
The images he captures reveal anything but a monotony of passive, catatonic stares that you might expect from engrossed gamers. Instead, the subjects' distinct personalities shine through.
Cooper's project was inspired in part by an experience he had in China. He was wandering around a huge Internet cafe with rows and rows of kids playing virtual video games. He was looking for interesting people to interview, and as he found them, he noticed...