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In Joseph's eyes, every photograph is a mark in time.

Joseph Desaulniers, also known as the Photographer, is a Difficulty Level 2.5 Hunter available for purchase after the completion of the prologue. He is one of 28 playable Hunters added to Identity V.

I missed you, my dear brother. Yet when I stand in front of the mirror, day by day, the face looking back at me has begun to feel foreign. How do I obtain memories that even time can't take away? Will I remember you forever? Will I remember the people I love and admire forever?

—Joseph Desaulniers (Photographer's Character Day 2020)


Appearance

Normal World Form

Joseph is a tall, slender young man with white skin interwoven with large, drastic black fractures, large, glassy, black eyes, and wavy white hair interwoven with large, drastic black cracks, messy bangs slightly covering his forehead, and tied into a low ponytail and secured with a grey ribbon.

He wears a dark grey vest and a matching coat with black tears and richly embroidered with light grey over a white shirt with large, drastic black cracks and flamboyantly ruffled cuffs, light grey breeches with black hems, light grey stockings with large, drastic black cracks, and white pointed shoes with dark grey buckles and black tears. A white cravat is secured around his collar with a white ribbon. He wields a long saber with a black handle and a thin, sharp blade with thin, black cracks in his left hand.

Camera World Form

Joseph is a tall, slender young man with snowy-pale skin, large, glassy, pale aqua eyes, and wavy white hair with messy bangs slightly covering his forehead, and tied into a low ponytail and secured with a gold ribbon.

He wears a midnight blue vest and a matching coat richly embroidered with gold over a white shirt with flamboyantly ruffled cuffs, midnight blue breeches with gold hems, dark grey stockings, and dark midnight blue pointed shoes with gold buckles. A gold cravat is secured around his collar with a dark gold ribbon. He wields a long saber with a gold handle and a thin, sharp blade in his left hand.

Gameplay

The Photographer is a slightly complex Hunter specializing in slowing down decoding speed across the entire map, and keeping Survivors injured. His movement speed is slightly below average, but he has a fast attack recovery and a unique hitbox that covers almost 180º in front of him. He is able to set up a Camera World, where everything is static except himself and the replicas of Survivors frozen in place. When a Camera World ends, half of the damage dealt to the replicated Survivors is transferred to their real counterpart, and each Cipher Machine has the progress between the real and replica of itself averaged out, greatly decreasing progress. If perform very well, Joseph can win the game without needing to chase survivors.

Overall, The Photographer is great for survivors who do not enjoy chasing but enjoy finding survivors in the Camera World and delaying the overall cipher progress once the Camera World ends.

External Traits & Abilities

Below is a list of Photographer's intrinsic traits and abilities. For more in-depth information, please check the individual pages.

External Traits & Abilities
Trait Description
CameraWorld
Camera World
After Joseph takes a photo with his camera, he can replicate the survivors and environment from that moment and create a static Camera World. After the Camera World collapses, half of the changes made within it will be projected onto the real world, and there will be a cooldown during which the camera cannot be used. Joseph can enter the Camera World at will to find the person from the photo and place them upon a rocket chair. While in the static Camera World, survivors cannot escape to the manor or be sent back there from rocket chairs; similarly, survivors in the real world can enter the Camera World through recorded images. Survivors who do this can decode cipher machines for progress but cannot decode them completely. Those in the Camera World will not apply team buffs or debuffs to survivors
Spacetime
Spacetime
Grants the power of two spacetimes. Regular attacks deal 1.5x the damage.
Ability Presence Description
RecordedMoment
Recorded Moment
1000 A Recorded Moment which can be used while Camera World is active. Joseph may use it to enter and exit the Camera World freely.
TimeJump
Time Jump
2500 Joseph records the last 15 seconds in time as he moves. Return to your desired point in time by holding down the skill button for the corresponding number of seconds.

Character Statistics

Below is a list of Photographer's statistics. To view other Hunters' gameplay data, please view this article.

Photographer Statistics
Chart Movement
PhotographerStatistics
Movement Speed 4.64 m/s
Vaulting Windows 1.6 sec
Turning Speed 800.0 degrees/sec
Fear Radius 32.07 m
Action Normal Attack Charged Attack
Launching Action 0.5 sec 0.98 sec
Range 3.46 m 3.63 m
Missed Attack Recovery 0.58 sec 0.78 sec
Hit Survivor Recovery 2.58 sec 2.78 sec
Hit Obstacle Recovery 1.13 sec 1.13 sec
Ballooning
Duration 1.8 sec
Launching Action 0.59 sec
Range 2.78 m
Stunned by Struggling Survivor 5.92 sec
Others
Model Volume Radius 0.38 m
Stunned by Pallet 3.94 sec
Destroying Pallets 1.92 sec

Abilities in Other Game Modes

Photographer Ability Changes in Other Game Modes
Modes Change
Duo Hunters Cannot use in this mode
Blackjack Camera World will not be allowed in whole match
Tarot Normal Cannot use in this mode
Crystal Ball Mode Cannot use in this mode

Tips

Please press "Expand" to see tips about playing as and against this Hunter.

General Tips

  • First, please note that detailed tips on how to use Joseph's camera and the parallel world created from it (which affects survivor health states, Cipher Machine decoding, and rescues) are found on the Camera World page.
    • However, even if you don't understand how the cameras work, it is best to activate them as often as possible, as this will slow down the game considerably and give you more time to hunt.
  • Due to Joseph's passive Spacetime ability, all of his regular attacks will deal 3/4 damage, putting a survivor at 1/4 health remaining before being downed.
    • This makes him a natural counter to Mercenary and "Psychologist" as he only has to hit them twice instead of thrice.
    • Even after being healed, a survivor that has been hit once by Joseph will remain at 1/4 damage, making them still be at 1 hit left to down for Joseph.
    • Only Doctor and Barmaid are able to heal the remaining 1/4 damage.
  • Photographer moves somewhat slowly and has a very weak chase, and heavily relies on injuring the Camera World survivor duplicates to injure or down survivors.

Recommended Traits and Talents

  • Confined Space is helpful in helping Photographer corner survivors, especially since it is on the same line as Destructiveness which breaks pallets faster.
  • Berserker can be used to maximize his already fast attack recovery speed.
  • Claustrophobia would be able to potentially reset exit gates' progress if the camera world is active, making it a trait worth bringing if the match is expected to progress to end-game.
  • Common chosen traits are Blink and Teleport which both help him get places more quickly, and help him in chases.

Concept / Design Notes[5]

Design Notes

PhotographerDesignNotesRBCN

Joseph and Michiko are similar as they are more "attractive" hunters, and both also have a dual form, using contrasting techniques to create a subtle sense of horror. We hoped that this character can have the atmosphere of a "bishounen" and we deliberately referred to some classical movie roles to assist with this ("Death in Venice", "Interview with the Vampire", etc.). We decided upon the dual forms after confirming this tone. The western style of sword shows strong regional characteristics, and the movements of swordsmanship gives people the feeling he is "not to be messed with". Therefore, for his motions of walking, attacking, and window-vaulting, we designed movements that are more in line with the character's temperament.

Change Log

June 15th, 2023
  • Buff: Increase launching attack speed from 0.6s to 0.5s.
  • Adjustment: Reduce Time Jump action recovery time. Due to this, the "Infinite Card Trick" becomes more difficult.
September 14th, 2023
  • Buff: When using the Photographer, the outline of the nearest Camera will be displayed.

Trivia

  • The camera which Joseph most likely uses (and was the first working camera type) is from 1837, which uses a process called "daguerreotype."
  • Joseph is based on Joseph Nicéphore Niépce, a French inventor credited with creating photography. The first permanent photograph of a camera image was made by him in 1825, but he died in 1833 - before the first consistently working camera was created by his friend Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre.
  • He is also heavily inspired by Dorian Gray, the main character from the gothic novel by Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray - Dorian sells his soul for eternal youth and beauty, while his portrait ages and withers away in his stead, similarly to how Joseph has two contrasting forms.
  • Joseph, Yidhra, Percy, Keigan, and Alva are the only hunters unavailable in the Violent Struggle (Duo Hunters) mode.
  • He is of French descent, born into a family of French aristocrats.
  • The name Joseph is of Hebrew origin and it means "He will add". It is the name of several biblical characters, and one of the most common European names.
  • The Photographer, The Ripper, Mad Eyes and The Breaking Wheel are the only hunters that wield their weapon on their left hand.
  • He appears in all three episodes of the stage play series produced in Japan. He is one of the featured characters of the first episode, alongside Aesop Carl. He was played by Igarashi Keisuke. His Moonlight Gentleman alternate costume appears in the comedy special performances of all episodes.
  • Originally, the portrait info and Joseph's model would display anomalies when the Novelist and Joseph participated in the same match. This was fixed in the November 4th, 2021 maintenance.
  • It is likely that Joseph continued aging after he entered the camera world, but kept the appearance of a young person.
  • According to the Official Identity V Museum, he is 205 cm tall (6'8).

In Other Languages

"Photographer" in Other Languages
🇨🇳 简体中文
(Simplified Chinese)
摄影师
(Shèyǐng Shī)
Photographer
🇨🇳 繁體中文
(Traditional Chinese)
攝影師
(Shèyǐng Shī)
Photographer
🇺🇸 English Photographer
español Español
(Spanish)
🇮🇩 Bahasa Indonesia Fotografer Photographer
🇯🇵 日本語
(Japanese)
写真家
(Shashin-Ka)
Photographer
🇰🇷 한국어
(Korean)
사진사
(Sajinsa)
Photographer
🇲🇾 Bahasa Melayu Jurugambar Photographer
🇹🇭 ภาษาไทย
(Thai)
ชางภาพ Photographer
🇻🇳 Tiếng Việt
(Vietnamese)
Nhiếp Ảnh Gia Photographer

References

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