Gaze and Memory: Narrative Practices in Player Photography in Red Dead Redemption 2

Player photography has become a prominent phenomenon in digital game culture. With the aid of advanced in-game photography tools, players can transition from being mere “players” to “observers” and “narrators” of virtual worlds, capturing moments through the lens, composing images, and creating new visual meanings. This study selects Red Dead Redemption 2 as a case study for three main reasons. First, it is a globally acclaimed AAA title with a vast player base, providing abundant examples of player photography and ensuring the representativeness of the study sample. Second, the game achieves industry-leading visual standards, with a meticulously constructed and immersive open world that offers an unparalleled aesthetic foundation for photographic creation. Third, the game’s deep character development and emotional core provide strong intrinsic motivation for players to engage in narrative and emotional expression through photography. Based on these considerations, this study focuses on two core research questions: 1. How do players reconstruct character narratives in the game (e.g., the story of protagonist Arthur Morgan) through photography? 2. How does player photography serve as a tool for encapsulating and expressing personal game memories and emotions? The significance of this study lies in revealing that player photography is not merely a matter of taking screenshots; it is an important creative practice that enriches our understanding of games as interactive art and players as active creators.

This study is situated at the intersection of photography theory, game studies, and participatory culture, aiming to provide a theoretical foundation for analyzing player photography practices in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Traditional photography theory offers an important framework for understanding virtual photography. Roland Barthes, in Camera Lucida, proposed the concept of the “punctum,” describing how certain accidental details in a photograph can penetrate conventional meaning and strike the viewer’s emotional core. This theory helps analyze how player photography evokes strong empathy through subtle character expressions, worn objects, or specific lighting, transcending mere visual documentation. Additionally, Susan Sontag, in On Photography, noted that photographs are not only acts of witnessing but also forms of active “possession” and “collection” of the world. In virtual environments, player photography similarly represents an aesthetic appropriation of game space; players collect landscapes and freeze narrative moments, transforming fleeting gameplay experiences into personalized visual memory artifacts.

Video games are widely recognized as a unique medium for narrative and artistic expression. Scholars such as Jesper Juul emphasize the “operable” nature of game spaces, which differentiates them from traditional media. Players are not passive observers but generate meaning through interaction within dynamic systems. Building on this, researchers like Mary Flanagan suggest that game environments themselves can be seen as “operable canvases.” In high-freedom open-world games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, game design provides not only preset narratives but also a stage rich with potential stories for exploration. Player photography extends this “operation”—players actively adjust camera angles, composition, and timing to transform the dynamically rendered game world into static images carrying personal narratives, thereby transitioning from “players” to “creators” of space.

Player photography exemplifies Henry Jenkins’ notion of “participatory culture.” Jenkins argues that media fans are no longer mere consumers but active participants who appropriate media content for “secondary creation.” Player photography, like creating mods or drawing fan art, is a core practice through which player communicate, reshape, and dialogue with the original game text. It represents the shift from players as “recipients” of game narratives to “co-authors,” who enrich and expand the story universe through personalized visual expression.

Although player photography has received some attention, existing scholarly discussions mainly focus on technical implementation, landscape aesthetics, or community sharing behaviors. There remains a lack of in-depth, focused analysis on how player photography functions as systematic narrative practices specifically, how players actively employ visual language to reconstruct character arcs and weave personal memories and emotions. This study aims to fill this gap by using Red Dead Redemption 2 as a case, systematically exploring the creative narrative potential of player photography beyond the game’s original storytelling.

This study aims to explore the narrative practices of player photography in Red Dead Redemption 2 and therefore adopts a qualitative research approach to systematically analyze players’ screenshot creations. The research subjects are photographic works created in the game using free camera angles and screenshot functions, encompassing characters, environments, events, as well as players’ expressions of emotion and narrative. Through these works, it is possible to observe how players reconstruct narrative elements and spatial perception within the game using visual means. The primary data source is the social media platform Xiaohongshu, where numerous players share game screenshots and photographic works. Selected samples include recently published posts with high levels of interaction to ensure representativeness and community recognition. The number of works chosen is moderate, balancing sample diversity with the feasibility of conducting in-depth analysis of their narrative and artistic features. This study employs a case study method, analyzing each selected photographic work in detail. The analysis focuses on the work’s themes, narrative elements, compositional strategies, color and lighting usage, and players’ choices of camera angles. By comparing the narrative techniques across different works, the study reveals how players actively construct visual stories within the game and how they reinterpret and personalize the original game narratives. Additionally, a visual narrative analysis approach is applied, with particular attention to how players use camera perspective, subject presentation, lighting variation, and spatial layout to convey emotion and memory. By examining the use of visual language in player works, the study investigates how players create emotionally resonant narrative moments in virtual space and how these moments interact with their personal experiences and community engagement. In summary, the methodological framework of this study addresses both individual artistic expression and community cultural interaction, providing a systematic analytical tool for understanding the narrative practices of player photography in virtual spaces.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the game world is constructed with highly realistic natural environments and finely detailed lighting, creating a rich virtual space. Through the free camera and screenshot functions, players can choose their shooting locations and angles, thereby reinterpreting in-game scenes. This reproduction is not merely a record of the game world but also a subjective narrative act. For example, players photographing horses running under the sunset in the wilderness reinforce themes of solitude, freedom, and vastness. Furthermore, players’ choices of weather, time, and terrain often carry narrative intentions. Twilight or rainy scenes are frequently used to emphasize a character’s loneliness or the tragic tone of the story, while expansive views of mountains or plains highlight freedom and adventure. These practices indicate that players are not simply replicating game visuals but engaging in “recreation” within the virtual space, assigning new narrative meanings through visual choices.

Gaze and character presentation in player photography are key components of narrative practice. By selecting the subject, determining the focal point, and controlling the background, players can shape the identity and emotions of characters in screenshots. For instance, some players capture images of Arthur Morgan with his horse, emphasizing solitude and inner struggle. Camera language plays a central role in this process. Composition often involves using foreground, midground, and background layers to guide visual attention and establish narrative relationships between characters and environments. Lighting and color are also crucial: warm tones convey warmth and hope, while cool or dark tones evoke sadness or loneliness. Additionally, depth of field and focus choices help highlight specific details, such as character expressions or symbolic elements in the environment, thereby conveying particular emotions or memories. Through these techniques, players extend the “character narrative” in virtual space, not only reproducing the game’s storyline but also adding personalized interpretation, enabling interaction between the original narrative and the player’s experience.

Player photography not only documents game scenes but also visually represents character experiences and emotional narratives. In Red Dead Redemption 2, players select specific moments, angles, and lighting to capture character actions, environmental atmosphere, and event emotions, achieving a personalized interpretation of the game narrative.For example, players photographing the Van der Linde gang burning down the Braithwaite Manor at night use contrasts between firelight and character actions to intensify tension, danger, and betrayal. This scene pays homage to the nighttime attack on a plantation by bounty hunters in Django Unchained, with the manor’s architecture reflecting a typical Southern plantation mansion. The symmetrical colonnades and warm lighting evoke Quentin Tarantino’s cinematic treatment of the U.S. slavery era. This visual reference not only heightens dramatic effect but also provides players with multi-layered narrative possibilities, allowing images to both reenact in-game events and carry cultural and cinematic interpretations. In this way, player photography becomes a vehicle for emotional memory, reproducing the original story while adding new narrative layers. Players can extend character experiences and enhance emotional resonance through visual works. This narrative reconstruction demonstrates player agency and creativity in virtual space, turning images into an interactive medium for personalized storytelling and gameplay experience.

Player photography exemplifies the transformation from “passive experiencer” to “cultural producer.” By actively choosing camera angles, composition, and content, players imbue the original narrative with new visual language and emotional depth. This creative reinterpretation not only enhances immersion in the game world but also expands the cultural value of the game. For example, characters such as Arthur Morgan’s former partner Mary can gain deeper emotional significance and relational complexity through players’ narrative reconstructions.In this process, players are both narrative agents and artistic creators. They use visual means to shape emotional experiences, reconstruct relationships between characters and environments, and participate in cultural production through community sharing. This agency reflects players’ cultural creativity in the digital era and highlights the potential of virtual spaces as platforms for artistic creation. In summary, player photography in Red Dead Redemption 2 not only reproduces game scenes but also, through choices of perspective, lighting, and composition, enables the reconstruction of character narratives and emotional memory. Players integrate game events, character experiences, and cultural imagery into their images, transforming screenshots into mediums for personalized storytelling and visual expression. This creative practice embodies player agency and cultural participation, turning virtual space into an operable platform for art and narrative. Therefore, player photography is not merely an aesthetic activity but a digital cultural practice with narrative depth and emotional resonance.

The analysis of player photography practices in Red Dead Redemption 2 demonstrates that player photography constitutes a unique narrative practice within virtual space. It not only reproduces in-game scenes and events but also reinterprets character identity, emotional experiences, and event memories through choices of perspective, composition, lighting, and color. Players are able to extend game narratives within their visual works, making screenshots not merely recording tools but mediums for expressing personalized narratives and emotional experiences. With its highly flexible narrative design and finely detailed visual assets, Red Dead Redemption 2 provides players with the conditions to create works that are both artistic and narratively rich. In the game, players are not only experiencers of the story but also active creators of narrative and visual expression. This agency reflects the participatory and cultural creativity of players in digital culture and highlights the potential of virtual spaces as platforms for narrative and artistic creation. Future research can expand in several directions. First, comparative studies of player photography across different types of games could explore differences in game mechanics, visual styles, and narrative strategies. Second, research could examine the narrative potential of player photography in virtual reality environments, investigating how immersive experiences influence visual storytelling. Third, attention could be given to the role of AI-assisted creative tools in player photography, analyzing their potential impact on narrative reconstruction and artistic expression. Such studies would offer a more comprehensive understanding of players’ narrative creativity and cultural value in digital spaces.