The art of photography in the real world is a practice with decades of history and it is concerned with capturing meaningful and beautiful images from our physical surroundings. However, what about documenting the beauty within the myriad virtual worlds that exist within video games?

This imagined world of pixels is being captured by a number of talented photographers who travel the in-game environment searching for striking images – and some of the results of these photographic virtual explorations are simply gorgeous.

One of the biggest names in in-game photography is Duncan Harris, an English games journalist who operates the website DeadEndThrills. He captures truly stunning images of popular games, including Skyrim and Dishonored. He likens his art practice to that of still photography in movie production and his images are often used by the game companies in their promotional materials.

Another notable in-game photographer is James Pollock, a graphic design student in Bath, England who showcases his photography on his blog, Virtual Geographic. His style is very different than Harris’s photography, as he takes photos of his TV set with an iPod and uses apps such as Hipstamatic and Instagram to add filters and effects.

Other video game photographers include John Paul Bichard, Kent Sheely and Robert Overweg, each one experimenting with their artistic vision and finding their own unique way of capturing the virtual reality. For more info on this, please see the trick photography tutorials here.

The virtual worlds within video games have been lovingly constructed by game developers but most gamers are so immersed in their missions that they don’t often take the time to soak in the details. These photographers are seeing the videogame landscape in a new way and are finding beauty within these fictional places.

The art of in-game photography is only newly emerging, but as technology develops and virtual game worlds become even more realistic, detailed and artistic, there is certain to be more photographers who strive to capture striking scenes within their favorite games.