The Day Virtual Photography was acknowledged as “Photography” by an Authority in the Field
Last year, in February 2020, I had the honour to have my Virtual Photography exhibited in an actual Museum Of Modern Art and have it labelled “ready-made art” by local art critics.
In that occasion I really thought I was dealing with my once-in-a-lifetime “15 minutes of fame”, but apparently I was wrong.
Opening a small door between Virtual Photography and the world of Art was actually a seed planted in fertile grounds, because a few weeks later my friends at Neoludica were contacted by an italian authority in the field of Photography, Fondazione Alinari per la Fotografia (established in 1852), and I was asked to capture some italian beauty from a videogame with the very noble intention of adding a sample of Virtual Photography to an itinerant exhibition focused on the architectural and natural wonders of Italy.
As a matter of fact, my screenshot was planned to roam 22 art galleries located in Europe and Asia between 2021 and 2022, along with 74 “real” photos taken by the best italian photographers of our time. The whole project was sponsored by the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (follow me on IG @emalord for monthly updates) and if you are wondering which game I chose to exhibit, look no further than the photo below (hint: It’s Assassin’s Creed II, set in Florence, with Ezio Auditore posing in front of Santa Maria Del Fiore’s Cathedral).
What will remain in history books is not the exhibition per se, is the fact that an historic institution like Fondazione Alinari actually accepted -and acknowledged- a capture from a videogame as a “photograph” and blended my screenshot among IRL photographs like it was the most natural thing to do.
In 10 years from now, Virtual Photography will be exhibited in the most prestigious museums of the world and these are the facts and moments that are opening doors and paving roads for the whole community amidst everyone’s silence and indifference. I wonder if the first among us that will be exhibited in a world-famous museum will see beyond his very ego and understand how many people worked behind the scenes for years to make that moment possibile.
