”In the 1990s, digital worlds were often thought of as disconnected from reality: on one side, the real and tangible. On theother, the virtual, seen as mere entertainment, with no ecological or political implications. With the spread of images generated by artificial intelligence, our shared social values being questioned, and our digital communication being exploited by platform capitalism, it is clear that ”virtual“ images have become political. In the context of a generic visual culture, it is crucial to rethink our relationship with images. Pascal Greco’s work is part of this process, shifting the focus from realism to sensibility. Through in-game photography, he explores the tension between the real and the virtual, questioning contemporary visual culture and our capacity to act. Considering the human being as a sensitive interface, his work rejects a technological vision of images in favour of a more subjective experience. By photographing video game landscapes, he questions the boundary between the real and the virtual and proposes a return to an ecology of attention and sensibility, an essential condition for rethinking our relationship with the world.” Claus Gunti
Pascal Greco made his first incursion into in-game photography during the pandemic thanks to the game Death Stranding and its landscapes evocative of a distant Iceland. Restricted to the confines of his flat, the virtual landscape opened up a liberating horizon before him, conducive to creative escape. The book he devoted to it in 2022, Places(s), marked the beginning of an artistic quest that would outlive lockdowns. This new book, Photography, Video Game, Landscape, recounts the continuation of his long-term virtual exploration. For four years, Greco has been exploring in all directions, to the Caribbean (Far Cry 6) and the Norway (Assassin’s Creed Valhalla), to the Japan (Assassin’s Creed Shadow), the California (Cyberpunk 2077) or Mexico and Australia (Death Stranding 2). A dozen of regions of the world (video games) in total and as many backdrops, all of which play the role of their photogenic models. By sublimating virtual worlds down to their inevitable glitches, he highlights and reflects on our increasingly fabricated reality.
Vernissages : Tokyo 09.09.2025 Tokyo, Post Architecture Books, 6 to 9pm. Arles 11.10.2025Arles, Librairie Actes Sud at 3:30pm. Genève 12.11.2025 Genève, Payot Rive Gauche, 6pm to 7pm Paris 20.11.2025, Librairie du Palais de Tokyo, 6pm to 8pm, with a talk at 7pm with Mohamed Megdoul, curator, filmmaker and creator of the magazine Immersion.
You can order the book bellow, from November 25. The book will be release only in selected bookshops in France and Switzerland on November 25. (Illustration images of the book by Post Architecture Books)
IDPURE éditions, & Chambre Noire, Switzerland | 2025. 77 Photographs. 128 pages | 22,5 x 30 cm | Design by Dennis Moya. Soft cover with flaps. Texts by Nadine Franci, Kunstmuseum Bern, Claus Gunti, Centre de la Photographie & ECAL, Matteo Bittanti, Milan Machinima Festival & VRAL | English & french. Limited to 500 copies.
This publication is supported by Pro Helvetia, The Republic and Canton of Geneva, the Centre de la Photographie Genève and the Musée Suisse du Jeu.