Pipe Dream
Pipe Dream was created during the COVID lockdown, when movement and access to the outside world were deeply restricted. Confined to my home, I began photographing within the virtual environment of Grand Theft Auto V, using the in-game camera phone to document life in Los Santos, a fictional city modeled on Los Angeles.
The project explores the tension between fiction and reality, examining how virtual worlds replicate and distort our understanding of place and culture. Through the lens of digital street photography, I approached the city as if it were real, documenting ordinary scenes of urban life such as empty streets, working people, quiet corners, and symbols of power and aspiration.
Although entirely simulated, Los Santos presents a reflection of the American mythos, the dream of success, consumption, and freedom, shadowed by inequality and decay. By using a video game as both subject and camera, Pipe Dream questions the nature of photographic truth and the idea of authenticity in representation.
This body of work exists between worlds, exploring how constructed environments can still reveal real social and emotional truths. It reflects both a longing for connection and a fascination with the enduring theatre of the American Dream.
