Contemporary Photographer Review

Phillip Tolendano's Gamers Review

The digital world is a fascinating place that breaks the barriers we set for ourselves, both physically and mentally. We can defy physics, create fantastical and impossible landscapes, and even play the part of God to our hearts content. There is little limit to what is possible when playing a video game. A person can lose themselves in a fabricated virtual space but the world never looses them. Phillip Toledano's Gamers series points out that ugly truth that even when we are immersed in play, our bodies are still physically in the world. Along with all those grotesque faces our bodies make in reaction to our avatar's interaction with environment.
The photo series Gamers shows front facing, non objective portraits of people making strange faces in response to playing a video game. Their faces are front lit like they are close to the screen they are playing on in a pitch black space. We, as the viewer, are forced to pay special attention to the way the light illuminates the faces in a very raw way. Each image not only shows a very human and unpleasing image of a primal facial expression but captures every imperfection in the subjects face. There is little in the way of Toledano attempting to show us any sort of photogenic image. Each picture is raw and represented in such a way to capture everything that is “wrong” with the subject. Every emotion from contempt to joy is represented in some bitter way.
As a gamer myself, I find this series quite funny and thought provoking. I don't think of myself as the kind of person to make involuntary expressions such as those shown in the series but that is probably due to the fact that I have never seen myself while immersed in a game. The series seems to question how I interact within video games. Games are a large portion of who I am and this series puts my interpretation of my hobby and puts it on its head. Every merit and down side is brushed away to point out how our bodies react to something that isn't really there. It isn't a right or wrong, just what exists and what doesn't. The emotion is physically present but the cause of said emotion was fabricated with mathematical code.
There is a lot going on under the surface of such simplicity unapologetic images that Toledano displays. The raw emotion he captures while people are immersed in a video game. There is a lot to the idea of humans putting themselves in the place of another. Video games do it in such a complete way that people forget that they are still present in the physical space. It is truly being in two places at once. I found the series very thought provoking as a fellow gamer to the point that I now find myself paying more attention to my own body while playing. The series really puts a new spin on how I view both my physical and digital world.

Mr Toledano: Gamers