Bachelor
Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Sara De Brito Faustino – Toute petite et vilaine

by Sara De Brito Faustino

“This project presents the home as a place where uncanniness and vernacular commonness exist side by side. Being an intimate space, a home should be a restful and secure place. However, mine has been the scene of some painful events. Today, I see this house as threatening. Uncomfortable and dysfunctional, it bears the scars of the past. In my photographs, I revisit those memories and reclaim my body. My tiny dioramas express my young self’s ideals opposed to the wounds I currently bear. Constructing, deconstructing, objects become bodies, whereas my being feels deformed and petrified. Toute petite et vilaine (“Tiny and Ugly”) creates an antagonistic tension between appealing visuals and disturbing details.“

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Ulises Lozano – Coming in

by Ulises Lozano

“Adolescence is synonymous with identity construction. Identity is redefined by today’s youth. The aesthetics they adopt reflect a desire for singularity in a changing society. In a collaborative way, I accompany a process of self-affirmation. They blossom and I offer them a space in which to express themselves. Photography takes shape: a safe place for participants to unfold their fantasised personalities – a kind of alter ego in the making. These self-portraits echo the intimate experience of coming in. They become moments of breath, of reconciliation. Through encounters, drawing and photography, they reveal their intimate selves to me. Coming in is a visual interpretation of this process.“

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Gaétan Uldry – I NO LONGER LOVE BLUE SKIES

by Gaétan Uldry

The drone is a machine for control, surveillance and suppression that is increasingly used and improved in its technological evolution. The drone acts as a prism that recreates a new reality, filtering and annihilating the real world. The image produced is a kind of mirage, devoid of meaning. The machine creates a deliberate feeling of distance with the need to confront death. This book highlights this new reality by collecting, cropping and assembling images produced by drones to denounce the absurdity and danger of these devices for carrying out violence. It questions the status of these images, whose plasticity and aesthetics obscure and conceal the true nature of their function, which remains to control, monitor and kill.

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Angèle Marignac-Serra – Isula Anima

by Angèle Marignac-Serra

« As everything regenerates, I wander the island of my ancestors. This book captures my encounter with the souls of this place and the invisible realm. I am confronted with a harsh and confidential geological world. None of my close family members reside there anymore. The various protagonists constitute clues, traces bearing the three kingdoms of the living. They become my clan. I become an archaeologist of this land. Animated by ancestral vernacular beliefs, the landscapes become anthropomorphised. It is a tribute to the secret nature, to the imperceptible, in search of a face in the stone, the trees, the sky. I leave room for my imagination and fantasise modern ruins like posthumous signs. The border with death becomes more and more tangible.»

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Luna Conte – Landing

by Luna Conte

« Landing is the story of my encounter with Israeli territory, of a confrontation with a reality far from the one I once fantasized about. It is a latent crossing, that of a place where time seems to have frozen still. What emerges out of the heaviness of the surrounding silence is the picture of a fragmented territory, one that is difficult to access and where the lowest walls stand like so many borders against the horizon. And in the destabilizing immobility of things they cast their nostalgic and dumbfoun- ded gazes, they who seem to be contemplating their territory, the very one whose complexity stares them back in the face.»

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Solène Gün – Turunç (Bitter Orange)

by Solène Gün

« Turunç offers an immersion in the daily life of Turkish immigrant boys in Europe, who live in places like the suburbs of Paris and Berlin. From my viewpoint, these places represent areas devoid of prospects, where these young people can only build a very particular world for themselves, torn between the desire to show they exist and a wish to hide away. It is from this identity conflict that I created my photographic work while being close to the people I was studying, which sometimes prevented me from seeing details or from observing them well. »

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Plein soleil

These are women with golden skin exposing themselves to the omnipresent  sun. They revel in the sunlight to improve their looks. Their tanned bodies show the long hours of sunshine they enjoyed. They stay along the coast of the seaside towns marked by Latin, bright and colourful architecture. Floating between documentary and fiction, the portraits of this matriarchal community, relaxing in the Southern sun, reveal a desire for exotism.

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Jean-Vincent Simonet – Maldoror

by Jean-Vincent Simonet

In 1869, aged 23, Isidore Ducasse published Les Chants de Maldoror, a  cutting-edge book praising youth revolt, blasphemy and the victory of dream over reality. My work is a rendition of the original book, divided into six booklets. This new illustrated version is a revival of this literary enigma, transforming the classic novel into a contemporary editorial object. Each of the six booklets offers a thematic approach related to the universe of Les Chants de Maldoror. The graphic design and different typologies of pictures give each booklet its own and strong personality. The literary blasphemy turns into a tribute.

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Laurence Rasti –

by Laurence Rasti

An individual is defined as such by the notion of identity. It allows him to build  him or herself on the social, but also on the personal level. However, if this freedom is denied in your own country, you have no other choice than to flee In Denizli, a small town in Turkey, hundreds of gay Iranian refugees transit: they put their lives on hold waiting to eventually find a host country where they can freely live their sexuality. This work questions the fragile concepts of identity and  gender. In this context of uncertainty, it gives these people a face which their country has temporarily stolen

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Manon Wertenbroek – Tandem

by Manon Wertenbroek

My diploma work is based on the relationship I have with my brother. The way  I show him in my pictures is characterised by the construction of all the elements composing my photographs. In my images, space is treated as a still life. The objects and settings that I create compose my pictures while giving rise to confusion at the same time. That way, my brother is both visible and difficult to reach. In each portrait my imagination forms itself in three dimensions to connect with my brother. The whole is then flattened by the medium of photography to become the physical frame of my mental images.

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Nnormal × ECAL

with Nicolas Poillot

In September 2024, the start of the academic year was marked by the launch of a collaboration with the trail equipment brand Nnormal. At the same time, Kilian Jornet, the brand’s founder, made headlines by climbing 82 Alpine peaks over 4,000 meters, setting a new record. Like trail running, photography requires passion, discipline, and endurance. The Bachelor Photography students may not be athletes, but they pursue their own visual feats, pushing boundaries to craft a unique language in an image-saturated world. ECAL has a long tradition of collaborating with top-level professionals who are eager to share their experience with a new generation in search of direction. One such figure is Régis Tosetti, artistic director at Nnormal and a former Visual Communication graduate at ECAL, who initiated the project alongside Nicolas Poillot, head coach and art director, known for his blend of fashion and documentary work. A longtime guest lecturer at ECAL, Nicolas has guided students with clarity and precision through the brand’s visual identity. In a noisy world overloaded with stimuli, this collaboration offered students an escape into the mountains—a space for communion, imagination, and adventure. There, bodies and landscapes meet, connected by the shoes that allow us to go further. But beyond the object itself, the students’ projects express ecological values, contrasting atmospheres, organic and technical textures, and bodies straining toward effort and release. And as in trail running, despite careful preparation, the unexpected often leads to new forms of beauty.

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ECAL × SDOL, Horizon Ouest, Regards sur la métamorphose urbaine

with Matthieu Gafsou

New transport infrastructure is emerging, while former industrial wastelands are giving way to modern buildings and redesigned outdoor spaces. Gradually, residents are moving into these new neighborhoods and adopting new habits.  To capture the first moments of life in these spaces, the association "Ouest lausannois: Prix Wakker 2011" has invited second-year students from the ECAL Bachelor of Photography program to observe them throughout 2024. This project highlights 18 ongoing construction sites or recently completed neighborhoods. Through their perspectives, the students offer original approaches to discovering, understanding, and appropriating these new spaces.  Photography maintains a unique relationship with the world around us, as it often depends on it. Far from merely documenting reality in a strict sense, it has the power to transfigure and reveal the invisible or the unspeakable. This is the approach adopted by the ECAL photography students at the request of the "Ouest lausannois: Prix Wakker 2011" association, as they explored various territories in western Lausanne. As part of this commission, each student was randomly assigned a specific location—be it a new neighborhood, a construction site, or a distinctive building—on which they worked over an academic year. Faced with spaces that were sometimes unphotogenic or even resistant to imagery, the challenge was to look beyond appearances, to resonate with these places in order to grasp their unique dynamics. The photographs question our perception of these recent landscapes and bear witness to the human activity unfolding within them. What do they reveal about our ways of living and moving? Who are the people inhabiting these spaces? What new landscapes emerge from these rapid transformations?  Through approaches that are sometimes sensitive and intimate, sometimes detached and analytical, or even driven by a formal fascination with the objects captured, the works presented reveal the density and diversity of everyday life. They bring forth a poetic vision of the city, inviting us to consider these territories not merely as functional backdrops but as fully-fledged spaces, rich with history, form, and identity—fluid and multifaceted, just like those who inhabit them.

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ECAL × JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: SPORT - CORPS

with Florence Tétier, Nicolas Coulomb

SPORT - CORPS : Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques The project is based on the theme of the body, with a view to staging physical effort.  The recent context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games logically frames the choice of sport as an aesthetic means of highlighting different forms of bodily expression. The choice of discipline could be classic, out-of-games or even imaginary. The students worked around a certain vision of physical effort, movement, constraint, a form of discipline, or even joy.

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BLI × ECAL

with Matthieu Gafsou

The collaboration between the ECAL and the BLI touches on contemporary issues that are of particular concern to students at the school: our relationship with minorities and the appropriate way of representing them. For a long time, a paternalistic anthropological attitude was tolerated and even encouraged in the world of photography. Attitudes have changed, and the young artists at the ECAL have developed a relationship of equals with the various communities they have encountered. Creating the images required a language that enabled the students to position themselves in relation to others and to establish protocols in line with their own values and those of the people on the other side of the lens. The images give us a complex, multifaceted panorama of our city's cultural diversity, and show us that encounters and mixes are possible and fruitful. Matthieu Gafsou, photographer and teacher.

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ECAL × JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: Under Your Smell

with Milo Keller, Florence Tétier, Nicolas Coulomb, Calypso Mahieu

The exhibition Under Your Smell offers a hypnotic and immersive experience in Jean Paul Gaultier's headquarters by imagining new definitions of beauty and body expression. Under the direction of Florence Tétier and Nicolas Coulomb, 3rd year Bachelor Photography students brought to life the brand's iconic perfumes through an immersive photographic experience. In the first season, with the complicity of Claude Emmanuelle Gajan Maull, the young photographers have fluidified the iconic bottles with their gendered silhouettes — Le Mâle, Le Classique, Le Beau and La Belle — in a fresh LGBTQIA+ perspective. With this upcoming season, the project evolves around the Scandal fragrance, with the creation of still lives in which the liquid, dry and organic contrasting textures evoke the essence of the perfume, its bottle design and its complexities. Through staging, the perfumes become the backdrop for stories of transgression and fantastical projections. In addition to monumental fabric prints, giant image-cushions welcome the public to lay down and celebrate gender fluidity and the ever changing definitions of beauty and self expression.

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Carhartt WIP × ECAL

with Nicolas Poillot, Milo Keller

Earlier this year, Carhartt WIP (for Work in Progress) teamed up with ECAL, inviting Bachelor Photography students to interpret in their own way some of the emblematic pieces of the American clothing brand, which develops its own collections from the original Carhartt work clothes. The students, led by art director Nicolas Poillot, produced an editorial report, which was included in the latest issue of "WIP Magazine" published by Carhartt WIP and some of whose images will be exhibited at the ECAL on the occasion of the launch of this book.

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Workshop Mode Suisse

with Noir Associates, Peter Puklus

lt is with great pleasure that we are presenting a selection of works by students of the Bachelor's degree courses in Photography and Graphic Design, curated by photographer Peter Puklus for Mode Suisse Edition 15. The workshop initiated by Noir Associates and carried out in November 2018, aim to produce the current Mode Suisse campaign through a interdisciplinary business-oriented youth promotion collaboration. The outcome of this workshop was so convincing that the means of communication for both Mode Suisse editions in 2019 will be implemented in cooperation with the ECAL students, beginning with work from Raphaèle Rey, Hugo Plagnard and Théo Barraud. The beginning of this fledgling collaboration is marked by the students' smart approach to meeting the needs of MADE VISIBLE, whose partnership with Mode Suisse is a way of making creativity visible in unexpected ways. Work has already started on the collaboration highlights to be shown at the end of summer 2019, at Mode Suisse Edition 16. Main partners: Engagement Migros, The Zurich Silk Association ZSIG, the Hulda and Gustav Zumsteg Foundation and The Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia

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Image Vevey × Confrérie des Vignerons

with Jonas Marguet, Milo Keller

From Lavaux to the Chablais region of Vaud, the world of wine was reinterpreted for a semester by students in their 2nd year of the Bachelor of Photography programme at ECAL/Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne, in collaboration with the Confrérie des Vignerons. Under the guidance of Jonas Marguet, photographer and teacher, the students used clues gathered in the field from the winegrowers. Selected and presented as part of the Festival Images Vevey, Elisa Ribeiro's 'Nuisibles' series sheds light on an unexpected aspect of winegrowing. She paints a gallery of portraits of insects that ravage vines, using a scanning electron microscope. By reappropriating a scientific tool for artistic purposes, she reveals the extraordinary, invisible to the naked eye. This work questions the very foundations of the photographic image, the process of taking the picture being carried out here by means of a beam of electrons. These tiny pests appear like giant monsters, presented in large light boxes that evoke the illumination of microscopic observation. Musée de la Confrérie des Vignerons Rue du Château 2 1800 Vevey www.confreriedesvignerons.ch www.images.ch

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Collaboration with Thierry Mugler

with Philippe Jarrigeon

Mugler’s heritage reinterpreted through the eyes of eighteen students of the 2nd year photography Bachelor course at the ECAL. A collaborative project led by the professor and acclaimed photographer Philippe Jarrigeon based on photographic and video works on 18 archive creations.

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ZENITH × ECAL

with Philippe Jarrigeon, Milo Keller

To celebrate the anniversary of the iconic "El Primero" movement, a class of second-year photography students set out to explore the world of Zenith. Guided by fashion photographer and teacher Philippe Jarrigeon, the students worked at the Manufacture in Le Locle and in the studios of ECAL in Lausanne to create visuals specifically designed to be exhibited around the world.

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Dramatic portraiture

with Louie Banks

Returning to the basics and origins of photography will allow students to focus their energy and ideas meaningfully on their concept and subject.   Louie Banks provided them with three keywords to consider as a way to create photographs with more impact than what is typically expected from today’s editorials and campaigns. The students were free to draw inspiration from one of the following keywords or to try incorporating a bit of each into their project: "Movement," "Costume," "Emotion."

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Le pavillon de l'élégance

with Chaumont–Zaerpour

Each group was tasked with creating a series of fashion images by appropriating or subverting visual codes from existing images. Everyone approached this exercise with creativity, exploring a variety of references, whether iconic fashion shots, works of art, or visuals from popular culture. Once all the series were completed, they were compiled into a printed and bound magazine. The assembly of the images gave rise to a unique object, where each project found its place within a coherent and visually striking whole. This magazine thus became the tangible trace of this collective exploration of fashion imagery and its multiple reinterpretations.

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Workshop with Lorenzo Vitturi

with Lorenzo Vitturi

The aim of this workshop is to engage students in a multidisciplinary process that combines photography with sculpture and scenography. To emphasize the importance of the creative process, students are encouraged to use primarily collected and recycled materials, which will need to be transformed and integrated into their visual narrative. The work presented at the end of the workshop will reflect this approach, combining visual results with sculptures and ephemeral installations.

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Pop Ups and Masks

with Taiyo Onorato

This workshop focused on staged photography, particularly emphasizing staged portraits. The concentration was on the two essential elements of the portrait: working with the object and manipulating its background. Staged portraits set themselves apart from mere snapshots by actively creating an image, steering clear of reality. Tools like light, background, and pose were employed to craft a deliberate narrative. Individuals were staged, altered in specific ways, adorned with outfits and masks. The workshop delved into the interest in masks as tools for transformation and representation. Throughout the workshop, masks were produced using available means, and they became the central objects of staging. Students photographed and filmed them, capturing the essence of transformation. The second element of the workshop, which focused on the background, pop-up techniques were experimented with. The backdrop, a dynamic part of the narrative, was manipulated using cleverly designed sets and unexpected spatial techniques. The focus was not just on capturing moments but on crafting them, bringing forth stories that transcended the boundaries of reality. The workshop provided a platform for unleashing creativity and experimentation.

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Afterhuman

with Elizaveta Porodina

For this workshop, Elizaveta Porodina asked the students to explore the theme "AFTERHUMAN". This theme opens up perspectives for capturing futuristic landscapes, representing the potential fusion of technology and humanity. Think about visually depicting the coexistence of artificial intelligence, cybernetics or biotechnology with natural elements. Experiment with innovative techniques to convey a sense of evolution or transcendence. This exploration invites photographers to creatively interpret and visually narrate a future beyond conventional human experience.

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Dissolution of genres and austerity in prise de vue

with Geray Mena

The workshop focused on the dissolution of genres within photography: documentary, fashion, still life and portraiture. Students built bridges between commercial and artistic practice.

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Vampire week

with Jean-Vincent Simonet

During one week, the students developed techniques that transform perception and the relationship with the corpus of images: erasure, displacement, loss of the sensation of reality.

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The Indecisive Moment

with Jaya Pelupessy

At a time when the distribution of images is lightning-fast and virtually infinite, and the distinction between the original and the copy often seems irrelevant, what is left? In this workshop the students were asked to partake in an experiment dissecting and illuminating various aspects of the image and reinterpreting its meaning. Using different reproduction techniques and methods of appropriation, students reflected on the origin and status of the image.

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Summer University CUBA

<meta charset="UTF-8"> After marking the history of the twentieth century with major episodes, Cuba must confront a new historical turning point. Obama's opening speeches and the death of Fidel Castro, leader of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, push the country towards a paradigm shift without priors. Partial liberalisation measures (restaurants, taxis and tourist activities) create an uncertain balance between mass tourism and Communist historical anchorage. The will of the workshop led by Milo Keller (head of photography) and Vincent Jacquier (Head of visual communication) was to rethink the visual relationship that the collective imaginary maintains with Cuba. It was for the students to get out of the tourist cliché, be it the old American car, the colorful colonial houses or the cigar. In partnership with the Embassy of Switzerland in Cuba, this week has been punctuated by many cultural visits. Exchanges with institutions such as the Instituto Superio de Arte (ISA) and the Fototeca de Cuba, as well as meetings with photographers who have worked for decades in Cuba as Sven Creutzmann and Vives-Figueroa, allowed an understanding finer Cuban culture, with exchanges around photographic, educational and policy approaches. The architecture has been one of the major themes, whether through visits to buildings of Porro and Gottardi, or even a visit to the Swiss Ambassador's residence, designed by Richard Neutra. With the help of the Embassy of Switzerland, the students were guided by four local photographers: Raul Canibano, Chino Arcos, Gabriel Guerra and Lissette Solórzano and they were able to get in places and invisible to tourists Havana networks. The projects are varied: technology report was addressed by Margaux Piette in a film about the hot spots Wifi scattered through the city. but also in the photos of Ivo Fovanna centered on the package, physical network for the exchange of files hacked; or in the film of Tatiana Mégevand on tourism activities Airbnb and economic change involved. The social characteristics of Cuba themselves in the series Olivia Schenker and Julien Deceroi. The first has made portraits of LGBTQ minority which enjoys a special acceptance on the island. The second makes us discover Santería, majority religion in Cuba of Christian inspiration and Voodoo. Imported cultural trends was put forward by the skaters in the movie of Pierre-Kastriot Jashari and more vernacular aspects are revealed in this series of Vincent Levrat pigeons collected on roofs by the inhabitants of Havana. The eighteen projects of this workshop were presented in the form of a projection at the Fototeca of Cuba on Vendredi8 December, in the presence of the Swiss ambassador, Mr Stutz and local photographers. This workshop was an opportunity of discovery cultural and social, but also a framework that helped improve the autonomy and ambition projectual students.

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Junk Museum

with Thomas Mailaender

This workshop, directed by Thomas Mailaender, was aimed at students in the second year of their Bachelor's degree in Photography. The students were immersed in the art of physically constructing an image and its presentation device. The idea was to broaden their artistic horizons through an awareness of installation, scenography and sculpture. The creative atmosphere of the workshop was enriched by a bold touch, where the singular smell of waste added an unexpected sensory dimension, transforming each creation into a unique exploration. Thomas Mailaender challenged the students to push the boundaries of photographic creativity. The project then took the form of an exhibition in Chavannes-Près-Renens. At the heart of this immersive experience, images were projected, hung, cut and superimposed, giving rise to unique, innovative and immersive works.

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Fine Art Photography

with Natacha Lesueur

Vulgar First, it is photography that would be considered vulgar: due to its technical mediation (the infamous photographic click-clack), its commercial uses (press, advertising, and fashion), its dissemination, and its reproduction, photographic activity is tainted with vulgarity. A minor art, an art that does nothing more than imitate art?

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Fine Art Photography

with Natacha Lesueur

Last minute risk As the students enter their final year of training at the ECAL, and their interests and methods take shape, it's time to take advantage of this last project to question our own rules, achievements and influences, not to be satisfied with them, and to take risks.

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Workshop Photographic chamber

with Matthieu Gafsou

The workshop week 4x5 is both an introduction to the 4x5 technical camera and a way to kickstart a photographic project. Students experience the process of analog shooting, from development to large format inkjet printing. This intense week is highly technical, but also focused on developing a photographic language, allowing for a better understanding of the fundamental workings of photography.

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BURNING CORSO - Thomas Mailaender

with Thomas Mailaender

In the spring of 2024, Thomas Mailaender and the students of the ECAL Bachelor in Photography entered the ruins of the club with the intention of making it resonate once again. Between archaeology, documentary research, and imaginative speculations, the group of adventurers crafted a surprising exhibition path blending mold and glitter, ashes and glamour. For one night, the Corso was filled with explosive sounds and images in a fiery tribute to the nights of Renens.

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Pratique photographique

with Maxime Guyon

"Extraordinary Daily Commodities": Everyday Objects What if the objects around us were not mere tools, but autonomous entities with their own essence? Inspired by Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this semester invited students to explore objects from a fresh perspective. Freed from the shadow of our consciousness, they take a place equal to that of humans, animals, and plants. Guided by Maxime Guyon, second-year photography students were encouraged to rediscover what "banal" truly means and dive into a reflection on the place and sensitivity of objects in the contemporary world.