Artist Screenshots Shooter Games to Present as Fine Art

By Art / IO, 31 Mar 2011

French artist Thibault Brunet isn’t a photojournalist, but he is known for shooting fine art images of war and death. The Lille-based Brunet is, instead, more likely an avid gamer—all his photographs are screenshots taken from popular video games.

Brunet uses the virtual world of games like Grand Theft Auto to produce some harrowing images—a soldier’s thousand-yard stare, a bomb exploding, and so on—complete with faux captions: “As a war correspondent, I surveyed Karachi’s recreated territories,” goes a typical one.

“These games are inspired by American popular, historical and political culture,” Brunet told TIME magazine. “They involve getting through missions—murder, blackmail, theft and escape, enemy liquidation, bombing or even the occupation of territories such as Afghanistan.”