Photographic Essays – 2023

In the second year, the course Photographic Essays course enables students to exercise a documentary photographic practice –one based on a relationship with reality, with something anchored in the here and now.

This year, students worked on a theme related to ecology in the broadest sense: a very specific, concrete starting point (a permaculture garden, Extinction Rebellion activists, documentation of polluted sites, encounters with people working with more-than-human animals), a broader, multiple or personal approach.

Studio project (2023) with Matthieu Gafsou

Assistants: Angèle Marignac-Serra
Students: 2 BAPH, Léa Bevilacqua, Johanna Bommer, Gilian Cardaci, Hector Codazzi, Carla Corminboeuf, Matilde Croxatto, Jennica Folkesson, Lorane Hochstätter, Sarah Marachly, Barnabé Masson, Yves Möhrle, Léo Paschoud, Cyriane Rawyler, Seraphine Sallin-Mason, Noé Vercaemst, Antoine Woeffray
Know-how: Documentary

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Projects related to Documentary

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BA GRAPHIC DESIGN

Joanna Metz – Galerie Nationale

by Joanna Metz

Galerie Nationale offers a glimpse of the young photographic scene in Dakar. In collaboration with a team of Senegalese photographers, the artist organised the exhibition Li Nu Boole, What connects us, which culminated in an opening in May, 2026 at the National Gallery in Dakar. This book documents the preparation of the event, the environment, the artists and their artworks, as well as the spectators taking part as actors during the opening. Through conversations and texts, the artists share their journeys, their visions of what connects us, as well as their reactions to the project. Throughout this project, the artist took on the roles of artistic director, curator, and graphic designer, while living an artistic and human experience in the country of her childhood.

BA FILM STUDIES

Documentary film workshop with Verena Paravel - 2026

with Verena Paravel

The 2026 documentary film workshop for 2nd year students was lead by french director and visual anthropologist Verena Paravel.

BA PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop with Rineke Dijkstra

with Rineke Dijkstra

What is good portrait? What technique do you choose? What kind of light do you use? Daylight or flash? What location or backdrop do you choose for? How do you choose your subject? How do you approach someone you don’t know? In this workshop, the students have explored what makes a good portrait and which tools you can use to create one.

BA FILM STUDIES

Documentary Film Workshop with Marie-Eve Hildbrand - 2026

with Marie-Eve Hildbrand

The 2026 documentary film workshop for 1st year students was lead by swiss director Marie-Eve Hildbrand.

BA GRAPHIC DESIGN

Arnaud Wenger – How You Read, How You Know

by Arnaud Wenger

Our perception of climate change depends on what we read. How You Read, How You Know is an investigation into the invisible architecture of information. When a wildfire burns, the facts are the same: the hectares, the wind, the displaced lives. But the story told about it never quite is. It shifts depending on who writes, from where, and for whom. This project analyzes the media coverage of two wildfires in 2025: the Los Angeles wildfires in January, and the Corbières wildfires, in the south of France, in August.

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