First a touring photo exhibit seen at galleries in London, Amsterdam, Paris, Stockholm, and Berlin, Alter Ego is now a book.

On sale now in hardcover at Amazon.com and Amazon.ca, Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators illustrates the phenomenon of the contemporary avatar -- the virtual characters gamers select and design to engage in online virtual worlds -- as well as the people who create them, many of them leading figures of the gaming world.

Portraits of gamers from the United States, Europe, China, and Korea are paired with images of their alter egos, graphically dramatizing the gap between fantasy and reality. Each of the seventy pairs of images are accompanied by detailed profiles and engaging stories about the person behind the keyboard.

Alter Ego hopes to act as both a guide to the contemporary world of the avatar, and as a serious contribution to the debate about the future of society in the digital age.