“At first, I made the video El hob wal melh / Love and salt on the basis of two simple observations: the television has often a pivotal role in an Arabic living room and the living room itself is the most important room in the house as this is the room where you receive guests and present yourself. Therefore this room is meticulously decorated with particular attention paid to its details. The room is thus comparable to a stage set. In this work, I tried to bring both the virtual (an Egyptian historic-political soap opera) and physical space on the same sphere thanks to a combination of the sound and the image. I played with this existing ambiguous relation between fiction and documentary. This work was completed only a couple of weeks before the start of the Egyptian uprising in January 2011... A scene from an Egyptian soap opera plays on the screen; Karama warns Amira of the ongoing confiscation of the royal family’s wealth including that of their close relation. Amira is part of this circle. The scene takes place in a fastidiously decorated living room, that looks singularly similar to the real living room, revealed by a panoramic. The sound coming from the television glides into this real room. As the first part of my project is more on the presentation of an internal point of view, I then decided to photograph the facades of buildings under construction or those that were in ruins in Cairo, as well as the “new palaces” surrounding them for my Al fassad/ The corruption edition. The aim of this was to confront these buidings to the stage sets of the “Media City Production”, a big film studio that produces numerous films and television series in Egypt. Once again, this work was not limited to documentary work as I added pieces of printed textile transformed into patterns, boxes of Kleenex made up like sculptures or plastic mouldings to the architectural shots. In Arabic, “Al Fassad“ also means “Corruption“.“
BA PHOTOGRAPHY
with Maisie Cousins
The aim of this workshop, led by photographer Maisie Cousins, is to use photography as a tool to broaden our powers of observation. During the week, students explored macro photography to create miniature and abstract worlds using everyday objects and accessories. This invites us to reflect: what else are we overlooking in our immediate environment?
BA PHOTOGRAPHY
with Philippe Jarrigeon
Drawing on Moncler’s Alpine heritage, its timeless style, and its technical mastery, the ECAL Bachelor Photography students developed their own interpretation of the brand’s visual language, blending documentary photography with staged scenes, and merging reality with fiction, under the artistic direction of French photographer Philippe Jarrigeon. As part of Paris Photo 2025, the students’ work was showcased at the Moncler boutique on the Champs-Élysées.
BA PHOTOGRAPHY
with Douglas Mandry
This workshop brought together ECAL graduate artist Douglas Mandry, the Polaroid Foundation, and around thirty Bachelor Photography students. They had the exceptional opportunity to work with a camera that produces Polaroid films in a 40 × 60 cm format and weighs nearly 200 kg. This experience was made possible thanks to its operators, John Reuter and Harriet Browse, who introduced the students to the use of this unique device and the Polaroid Foundation team. Douglas Mandry provided the project’s artistic direction and supported the students in their experiments carried out directly with and on the films. The final result was presented as a collective exhibition on ECAL’s premises, revealing a particularly rich diversity of approaches and visions.
BA PHOTOGRAPHY
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.
BA PHOTOGRAPHY
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.