Video Game ‘O Faces’ Captured with RED Camera

British photographer Robbie Cooper used stills from the video taken by his RED camera to show that look of total concentration achieved by kids as they play some particularly absorbing video games, including Grand Theft Auto IV and Call of Duty 4.

Cooper had the kids look at a reflection of the game in a plane of glass, and put his camera behind the glass so the kids wouldn’t be self-conscious about the giant fancy camera pointed right in their faces. This technique is evidently Cooper’s homage to Errol Morris’ “Interrotron” that the filmmaker used for many of his documentaries. The interplay between the real and unreal worlds is Cooper’s ostensible subject, but mostly the photos are just great to look at.

The stills are fantastic quality and it’s an odd bit of voyeurism to look straight into somebody’s eyes when they’re concentrating on something totally different. The other galleries on the site are all really impressive, but this one hit me hard: I’m sure that’s how I look right now, staring at my laptop screen. [New York Times]