The metaxic photograph: between the real and the unreal

This thesis aims for a better understanding of photographic theory with regards to photographs made of and within virtual environments. It argues that virtual photographs can be considered and understood within the discipline of photography, rather than only as an offshoot of computer programming, digital art or games design. Images produced in videogames, including via the relatively new innovation of the in-game photo mode, are read as photographs, along with the work of photographers who have produced work of, within and related to the screen, including Diane Arbus, Lee Friedlander, Harry Gruyaert, Michael Wolf, Roc Herms and Robbie Cooper. The history of the screen in modern photography is considered to demonstrate that screens create a window to another world, which is as fertile an environment for photography as the real world. A new term, the metaxic photograph, is suggested for an image made within virtual worlds, or one which denotes or connotes people’s presence in, and relationship to, virtual worlds that exist beyond the physical, and which are observed and mediated through the screen.