2girls1comp, Towards a Philosophy of the Photo Daddy, 2023

Towards a Philosophy of the Photo Daddy is a modification for GTA V that replaces all NPCs with avatars caught in a continuous loop, endlessly taking pictures of the game’s environment. The mod sets the in-game time to a permanent «golden hour,» — the period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder and softer compared to when the sun is higher in the sky, offering ideal lighting conditions — while excerpts from Vilém Flusser’s seminal work Towards a Philosophy of Photography (1983) are recited in a seductive yet punishing monotone.

In his writings, Flusser challenges the traditional view of photographers as heroic masters of the technological apparatus, i.e., the camera and its infrastructure. He contends that cameras entice their users to produce an ever-growing collection of redundant images, reducing them to mere functionaries. Within this endless cycle of producing pointless pictures, photographers become ensnared in a Kafkaesque game they can only lose. The system created by the mod emphasizes this notion of the camera as a plaything or toy and the photographer as a player. Moreover, the mod acts as a critique on the challenges faced by the photographic medium as it navigates its radical transformations in digital and networked contexts.

The autonomy of the human photographer is undermined by algorithmic systems, and 3D computer graphics are increasingly supplanting traditional photographic images. The futile efforts of the «photo daddies,» — a vernacular expression referring to overly-enthusiastic camera buffs with rigid views on the essence and purpose of photography — to meticulously capture their surroundings mirror the medium’s ongoing struggle against its potential obsolescence.

More by 2girls1comp: 2girls1comp.xyz