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Published on 14/06/2012 – Updated on 13/01/2026
Method Timeline Process Postcards Albums Press

“Virtual Tourism” is a series of photographs and videos based on the contemplative practice of gaming, allowing tangible memories of virtual excursions to be preserved – also known as In-game photography or Virtual photography. With a camera at my disposal I simply walk into the decor of video games which offer open worlds, I explicitly do this without paying attention to the context (off mission). I wander around these wide digital open spaces, solely to appreciate the work produced by graphic designers and developers. I then start searching for the best spot where I can take a picture with the most suitable view, location, frame and ideal moment. These pictures, which are exclusively focused on landscapes, are a way to keep memory of my virtual excursions in the Metaverse. They also often reveal empty or “abandoned” areas of the gameplay, places which are usually ignored or neglected by active or scoring gamers.

Shooting methods

Photography in videogames

I prefer to take photographs instead of screenshots. This method sublimates the image and makes the texture of the screen visible – allowing me to capture the technical features of the equipment of that time, in anticipation of the major changes soon to come in how content is broadcast. The aim is to produce the final piece while taking the picture. The initial photos are originally taken in high definition, and are eventually reduced to a smaller size before being posted online. The pictures online are either left in their original state or moderately altered: a little cropping and editing (brightness, saturation of colors).

This method of shooting has two advantages: when in front of the screen, the moment the picture is taken, the camera reinterprets the pixels. This creates a “smoothing” effect on the surface which eradicates the sometimes too brutal aspect of some decors due to the work of current 3D engines. Finally, when the images are cropped, the visibility of polygons is naturally reduced. The finishing result allows to acquire a “new” image, one which is embellished and beautified yet, one which none the less remains loyal to the original game.

Photo and video captures

From 2015 onwards, in order to pay a more faithful tribute to the work of the designers, I began taking more HD screenshots, like in Fallout 4, Mad Max or Assassin’s Creed Origins. From 2020 onwards, The Soulignac Brothers‘ project will involve video capture in order to showcase the animation and sound design, like in Metro Exodus, Detroit: Become Human or Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End.

“Environment is important, games are very geographical – they present space almost better than they present time, and we try to use that, to showcase variety between different landscapes. It’s this idea of a digital holiday: being able to explore spaces that don’t really exist is one of the things that’s fascinating about open world games. It’s not just about doing the activities we’ve set, there’s also a sense of being there.” Dan Houser, Rockstar Games (source)

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Project timeline

The 1980s and 1990s: first encounters with the wonders of video games

Like many young geeks in Western Europe, I experienced a rather classic and happy period of wonderment with video games. After school, homework, adventures with friends in the park or in the forest of Fontainebleau, music theory, violin, gymnastics or karate lessons, we were allowed to watch films, television or play video games. In arcades and on NES, to begin with. Then came my cousin’s Amiga and our parents’ first PC, on which I experienced my first frights in a virtual world in Alone in The Dark; my first immersion in a cyberpunk universe in Syndicate; and my first dive into a world of poetic digital adventure in Little Big Adventure. Too demanding on hardware resources, I quickly abandoned the PC for the PlayStation 1, then the Nintendo 64.

1992: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

My contemplative relationship with video games dates back to this early period of wonder, when I used to watch my older brother play The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, created by Shigeru Miyamoto for the Super Nintendo in 1992. My brother and I already shared a passion for cycling adventures, films and music; art and fiction were part of our lives. But seeing him play as the hero of such an epic adventure on screen was something new, a new reason to spend time with my brother, a new way of being a spectator. That’s when I began to appreciate video games for what they really are: interactive fiction, capable of transporting us to new imaginary worlds.

1994: Little Big Adventure

The game Little Big Adventure also had a profound impact on me, even though I never actually played it. Our PC at the time didn’t have the SVGA colour screen needed to run it. I could only dream about it secretly, reading video game magazines. That didn’t stop me from having an indelible memory of it, quite the contrary. Without realising it at the time, I was discovering the artistic forces at work in video games, the same forces found in all works of the mind: invented worlds capable of transporting you, inside or outside yourself, through the power of imagination alone.

1998: Unreal

In 1998, as part of my studies, I re-equipped myself with a PC and played Unreal. That’s when I discovered what ‘real’ real-time 3D computer graphics were all about. Mesmerised, I bring my eyes closer to the screen to better contemplate the objects and landscapes, as if I were rediscovering the shapes of the world. At that time, geeks like me were indeed faced with a new world: high-definition 3D was no longer just a promise but a reality, and we were all about to dive into an increasingly figurative representation of cyberspace, with no turning back.

1998: Half-Life

My second aesthetic shock in a 3D virtual world. Also in 1998, I discovered Half-Life, a new kind of video game, based on immersive storytelling, borrowing codes from cinema, featuring a revolutionary physics engine, and detailed 3D graphics. The willingness of taking screenshots was immediate. I took a little bit of everything : place, objects, interactions, scripted sequences. A basic shooting method, a rendering a bit raw, but the big picture of Virtual Tourism was born : I found a simple method to keep memory of my virtual experiences. See the album Virtual Tourism in New-Mexico.

2001 – 2004: Max Payne 1 & 2

A game full of pyrotechnics details, using the entire potential of ragdoll physic system. As a fan of John Woo action movies since my childhood, I’m fascinated to be able to play and replay this kind of action scene. A few time before the Let’s Play videos on YouTube, I was capturing with digital camcorder the sequences of gunfights; reporting on the rendering of lights and objects in contact with bullet impacts. Jubilant. I never shared those images on the Internet but the videos must still be on the camcorder’s tapes, somewhere in my parent’s home.

2008: Fallout 3

My third aesthetic shock in a virtual world, my first real experience of an open-world RPG, and my very first video game photographs. Wide landscapes, variable atmospheric effects. A so beautiful universe – perfect mix between art and technology, I had to take the landscapes in pictures, but it was impossible to take a screenshot here (on Xbox 360), so I took pictures with an actual digital camera. The shooting method was transforming the picture surface, with a peculiar and paradoxical effect : the game looked more realistic, the trip memory much more “real”. See the album Virtual Tourism in Washington.

2010: Just Cause 2

2010 : Just Cause 2. The bigger map never created for 3D off-line open-world game; huge level design (exploration-oriented) on horizontal and vertical plan; jubilant physical engine sandbox like, virtuoso geographic and atmospheric effects. To sum up : the dream game to practice video games photography landscape-oriented. See the album Virtual Tourism in Island of Panau.

2011: The power of art critic

In September 2011, I discovered a press article from the French journalist Erwan Cario, about Iain Andrews‘s work. Before that, the concept of video games photography was not clear in my mind, and publishing my own video games pictures was not a goal. I was just shooting pictures, saving them somewhere on my hard disk, like any other archives, that was enough to keep memories of my virtual trip. To be honest, it was even an occupation a bit “bizarre”, maybe too geeky and hard to explain. Anyway, an art critic had been changing my vision, outside the box, simplified.

At the edge of reality

I was publishing already some pictures taken during my real travel about architecture, design, location scouting; from now, within the same spirit, I could publish pictures from my virtual travel. Discover all albums of the Virtual Tourism Series.

2011: Skyrim

My first published album was the virtual tour in the amazing Skyrim, certainly the bigger offline open-world game and the hugest interactive scenario I never played at this time. See the album Virtual Tourism in Province of Skyrim.

2016: Physics engine of Just Cause 3

In 2016, thanks to Just Cause 3, I rediscover the pleasure of contemplating simulation engines. I then make a short video with the physics engine developed by Avalanche Studios. Watch the video Virtual Tourism in Medici Archipelago.

2015 – 2020: in-game photography is mainstream

The games released at the end of this decade have been numerous and varied in universes to explore. Most of open-world games now offer an integrated photography mode, meeting the needs of fans of the new popular art that has become video game photography – also called In-game photography.

Virtual urban exploration

After deserting virtual worlds for a few years – already busy exploring new territories IRL, I finally came back to the limbos for a proper urban exploration in the Boston of Fallout 4; then after in Wasteland’s desert of Mad Max, the San Francisco of Watch Dog 2, the city of Columbia in Bioshock Infinite, in the miraculous Middle Ages recreated by Polish studio CD Projekt, The Witcher 3; as well as in its very ambitious (perhaps overly) Cyberpunk 2077 – a virtual world and a simulation that did not leave me indifferent.

Rediscovering the past, imagining the future

I also spent a long time wandering through ancient Egypt of Assassin’s Creed Origins and its visionary “Discovery Tour” DLC; representing a Ubisoft’s major contribution to the creation of interactive documentary experiences and in the development of new methods for knowledge acquisition. I loved exploring the mysterious universe of Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, a true ode to travel and the finest contemporary representative of adventure entertainment. I then discovered with great interest the dark and visionary universes of Detroit: Become Human, by French studio Quantic Dream, and Metro Exodus, by the Ukrainian studio A4Games.

2020 – The Soulignac Brothers – Reconnecting despite restrictions

In December 2020, in the midst of a global pandemic and severe travel restrictions, my brother Thibaut and I were living 10,000 km apart. He was in Paris, while I was in Saigon (Vietnam). We began to wonder how we might see each other for the holidays despite these constraints. In previous years, I would usually travel physically for the holidays, by plane, thereby generating an excessive and unreasonable amount of carbon emissions. We could also have chosen to connect through voice or video calls. But since we both shared a passion for video games and new technologies, and had previously collaborated on the GTA 4 episode of the Virtual Tourism series (Los Angeles vs Los Santos), we simply decided to meet up in our favorite video game: Red Dead Redemption 2.

2025 – The new territories of cyberspace

Until then, the Virtual Tourism Project, dedicated to the contemplative way of gaming, had been a very solitary project; in 2020, it became a family matter, a collaborative project between brothers sharing the same passion. The objective was simple: to reunite despite the mobility restrictions, to talk, to have fun, and to try to preserve a tangible memory of that moment. This simple idea gradually evolved into a video project, in the spirit of “Machinima,” which can now naturally be found on our YouTube channel.

Emerging rituals – The real potential of video games

In this modest experiment, we also aim to poetically document how new rituals emerge in virtual worlds, whether or not they respond to real world changes. Presented as a series of logbooks, this project is always evolving, freely written, shaped by the shifting boundaries of cyberspace and ongoing discussions about the metaverse’s possibilities. Learn more about the collective The Soulignac Brothers and discover all our travels.

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About the process

Virtual tour

My intention is neither utilitarian, journalistic nor scientific. My approach is purely poetic; I express my travel impressions through images or words. In a video game, I keep my real photographic habits. I live my journey without being riveted behind my lens. Sometimes I don’t even have the time – or the desire – to take photographs. For instance, in the masterpieces developed by Rockstar Games (GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption 1), I simply didn’t have the “photo reflex”, too absorbed by the universe and the scenario.

Exploration with no constraints

Also, some programs do not lend themselves well to the exercise: games in the third person or certain graphic universes do not allow me to obtain satisfactory results. My priority is to enjoy the game, to contemplate its programmed universe and to take a few pictures. My goal is not to build an useful guide, with practical map, good plan and reviews. If you are interested by this way to play – and to write – you must read the articles of the French journalist Olivier Seguret, named Tourisme virtuel (in French).

Creative tourism

The title of the series “Virtual Tourism” refers to my way of playing. I’m not a scoring enthusiast, I consider video games as a rich cultural product, whose sole purpose is not to entertain. I love to play games, of course, but my pleasure is doubled when a deep scenario unfolds and the possibility of getting out of it is offered. Then I like to get lost in the map, test the limits of the program, reach hard-to-reach areas, be surprised by an event, dream, fiction, imagine the designers’ development techniques… In short, I’m a bit like those tourists who visit a country without any planning. Once in the program, I embark on a deep, creative, limitless – or almost limitless – exploration armed with my imagination and a camera.

Search Engine Optimization

The titles of Virtual Tourism posts do not have the name of the game but the names of the places where the story of the game takes place. This little detail of nomenclature had an unexpected effect on search engines: Google’s algorithms did not differentiate between real and virtual places, so my photographs quickly cohabited with the screenshot of real virtual tour software. Perhaps more interesting is Journey’s intrusion when an Internet user searches for photographs of unknown desert.

Emergent gameplay

Today, as an aesthete-gamer passionate by emergent gameplay, I’m mainly focused on openworld-sandbox games. Firstly because they are the cutting edge of technological and storytelling innovation in video game industry; but also because they simply fit my needs: time and space are open, the ideal conditions for a contemplative video games photographer.

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Postcards from virtual worlds

I take in-game pictures to keep tangible memories of my virtual experiences. During these trips, I sometimes send postcards to share my memories and connect with people. Read more.