Workshop Survival Camp

Workshop Survival Camp

During this workshop, the artist and the second-year Bachelor students spent a week living in a forest in western Lausanne. The shock of being deprived of the usual comforts such as running water, electricity and heating motivated the students to produce an enormous quantity of images. Cooking over an open fire, sleeping under the stars, hunting and fishing were all part of their daily lives, and provided the perfect backdrop for visual experimentation. The responses were manifold, from still to moving images, some dealing directly with delirious contemporary camping. The common denominators of all the works are humor and off-beatness.
During Paris Photo, the results are presented in the form of an installation in the unusual urban setting of Les Voûtes. After the week-long workshop in Switzerland, all the students worked with Thomas Mailaender on the design and production of the exhibition. The students experienced a week of installation in total immersion: they lived in the exhibition as they built it. The images are presented in a raw environment, a sort of village, a makeshift camp. This whole process enabled them to confront not only the shooting process, but also the question of producing and exhibiting the images to the public. The exhibition is accompanied by a two-color catalogue-journal produced by the students and printed at the ECAL.

Workshop (2014) with Thomas Mailaender

ECAL/ édition survival camp
ECAL/ édition survival camp
ECAL/ édition survival camp
ECAL/ édition survival camp
ECAL/ édition survival camp
ECAL/ édition survival camp

1/6

_DSC6365 copie.jpg
ECAL/Jacques-Aurélien Brun, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet
DSC_8362 copie.jpg
ECAL/Jacques-Aurélien Brun, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet
_DSC6801.jpg
ECAL/Pauline Amacker, Coline Amos, Fiona Crott, Alexandre Haefeli, Margrét Gyða Jóhannsdóttir
DSC_7812.jpg
ECAL/Jacques-Aurélien Brun, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet
ECAL/Jacques-Aurélien Brun, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet
ECAL/Jacques-Aurélien Brun, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet

1/2

DSC_8336 copie.jpg
ECAL/Jacques-Aurélien Brun, Maxime Guyon, Benoît Jeannet

Projets similaires

Adel Debabéche – Ouled El Bahdja

BA PHOTOGRAPHY

Adel Debabéche – Ouled El Bahdja

by Adel Debabéche

Ouled El Bahdja offers an intimate glimpse into Algerian youth, caught between waiting and the desire to leave. This project explores the mental and physical space of a generation dreaming of elsewhere, in a country where the future feels suspended. It is a portrait of a fragmented daily life, where time stretches into boredom, yet a quiet tension remains—between resignation and hope. An attempt to capture those in-between moments, those gazes turned toward Europe—a collective fantasy, a promise of recognition, but also an uncertain path... Ouled El Bahdja sheds light on a youth that, despite sociopolitical constraints, seeks to build a meaningful existence. A gesture to make visible the dreams and desires for emancipationborn in the shadows.

Belinda Kiela – Bana Ya Mbòka

BA PHOTOGRAPHY

Belinda Kiela – Bana Ya Mbòka

by Belinda Kiela

The images in this edition are fragments of an immersion at the University of Kinshasa : a glimpse into student life in a vibrant, ever-moving capital. Through laughter, doubts, and encounters, the photographer has learned to anchor herself in a daily life far removed from the one she knows in Europe. Bana ya Mbóka — children of the country — gives a face to the youths who study, dream, and resist on this campus. Founded in 1954, UniKin aimed to be a leading African institution, but instability slowed that vision. Despite strikes, power cuts, and limited resources, the students she has met exude strength and clarity. This project reveals moments of connection, gestures of resilience, and hopes that persists through it all.

Delio Testa – Partenopei

BA PHOTOGRAPHY

Delio Testa – Partenopei

by Delio Testa

Naples is a vibrant expression of a people’s deep love for their land. This passion lives on despite the weight of daily chaos and hardships that run deeper than it appears. To understand it, a person must enter Neapolitan life, where devotion to figures from religion, culture or everyday life is everywhere. These icons give strength, inspire creation and sustain a constant desire to celebrate. Neapolitans do not just endure struggle. They turn it into energy and a powerful source of hope. This book reflects that spirit through portraits and documentary work.

Cedric Zellweger – If life is a video game, the graphics are great, but the plot is confusing & the tutorial is way too long.

BA PHOTOGRAPHY

Cedric Zellweger – If life is a video game, the graphics are great, but the plot is confusing & the tutorial is way too long.

by Cedric Zellweger

The project centers around Elon Musk’s life—his career, family, and global influence—viewed through a critical lens. Musk perceives the world as an immense playground, a glossy surface full of contradictions, where his ambiguous ties to Trump further complicate world events. Influenced by Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, the clear American dichotomy between good and evil dissolves; heaven and hell blur into an indistinguishable spectacle. In this context, Texas—where Musk and members of the photographer's family reside —embodies the expansive, protective, hyper-consumerist “American way of life”, fascinated by stars yet anchored beneath a paradoxically unreachable sky. The installation-based project employs various media: 4x5 film photography, a video game, photograms and different objects.

Eliot Pizzera – Tarèinâ

BA PHOTOGRAPHY

Eliot Pizzera – Tarèinâ

by Eliot Pizzera

Tarèinâ is a dystopian short film that explores the melting of snow and the impact of climate change on the Swiss Alpine landscapes. Global warming is pushing the snow line higher, leaving lower-altitude ski resorts deserted, littered with ruins and the skeletons of useless infrastructure. In this post-tourism setting, a lone skier glides like a ghost, trapped in an absurd ritual. Inspired by the landscapes of Valais and local myths, the film blends silence, organic sounds, and visual poetry. It incorporates the mythical figure of the Tshaggatta, masked guardians seen in Blatten before the climate disaster of 28 May 2025. Symbols of mystery and resilience, they raise questions about our relationship with the mountains and our desire to shape them in our own image.

Related courses