London Games Festival just crowned its Virtual Photographer of the Year. Joe Meizies took top marks in the competition for their stunning image of the rocky bluffs in Red Dead Redemption 2.

"The photography competitions have become a real highlight of the London Games Festival," Festival Director Michael French remarked. "The standard from last year was high, but our entries this year really raised the bar. There was a great mix of creativity and not just in the images put forward but in the post-production work as well. We were thrilled to be able to share all the entries with everyone and we’re already looking forward to next year!"

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London Games Festival is described as “the world’s biggest celebration of video games and interactive entertainment.” The festivities “covered 40 events across the city, activity over 12 days, and over 400 games to play” in 2019 before becoming “a pioneering online event which created millions in business for games companies and facilitated over 1,000 digital meetings” in 2020. The mission of the festival is to “make London the games capital of the world.”

The virtual photography competition “challenged aspiring artists to capture the most striking images taken from within a video game to bring those worlds and characters to life.” The event was all about celebrating the “new artistic medium of virtual photography where creators can bring video game design and virtual worlds to life. From a stunning landscape to intimate portrait, candid street to abstract architecture or historical to Sci-Fi fantasy.”

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Contestants were called upon to submit work in one of three different categories. These consisted of Abstract, Portrait, and Landscape. The images could be taken on any platform. Post-production techniques were "permitted, but not essential." The winner of the competition, Meizies, made use of post-production techniques to “bring out the vivid red and orange hues from the striking desert shot.”

Meizies took home a laptop “specifically designed to empower aspiring artists with cutting edge graphics technology and advanced drivers that can unlock the potential of the most advanced creative applications.” The winning image, featured above, was chosen by representatives from Nvidia Studio and The Fourth Focus.

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