The Virtual Photography Awards 2025 Winners Announced

The FourthFocus website, in collaboration with a professional jury, has announced the winners of The Virtual Photography Awards 2025, celebrating the best in virtual photography—photography captured within video games using in-game Photo Mode tools or amateur modifications. The main prize, Virtual Photographer of the Year, was awarded to Hary "Hary1495g" G. (USA), who also won in the Open and Storytelling categories with images from Cyberpunk 2077, Elden Ring, and Ghost of Tsushima. Other category winners include: Action won by _Virtualtourism (UK) with an image from Session Skate Sim; Collection won by Maksim Plotnikov (Russia) with a sequence from Red Dead Redemption 2; Environment won by MurphyVP (Turkey) with an image from Red Dead Redemption 2; Lo-Fi won by Oscar Lundin (Sweden) with a Cyberpunk 2077 photo; and People won by Hajer Haj (Saudi Arabia) with a photo from Horizon Forbidden West. The awards highlight the conservative approach of TheFourthFocus, which emphasizes photorealistic replication of traditional photography within virtual environments. Winners often rely on ray tracing and path tracing technologies to simulate light behavior. The awards demonstrate that virtual photography remains primarily a promotional tool for video game companies, celebrating technological progress without challenging the ideological underpinnings of the industry.