One of the many reasons videogames aren't good as spectator sports is that it's simply not interesting to watch people play videogames. Most of us sit there slack-jawed and absorbed, the expression leached from our faces. It would make for very boring television.

But a photographer named Robbie Cooper managed to capture that zen state of being in the videogaming zone. He set up a camera behind a monitor on which a variety of kids, some of them quite expressive, played videogames. They range from intent to vacant, and there's always that disconnect between their faces and the furious sound coming from the actual games. Some of them are uncomfortable and even a bit disturbing (Is that girl playing what sounds like GTA even alive?), but most of them are beautiful.

Watch Cooper's short video, Immersion, on the New York Times web site. Trust me that it's well worth sitting through whatever annoying ad you'll have to watch first.

(Thanks Blues News!)