Applied Photography - Spring – 2024

This course focused on location photography. Students were asked to step outside the studio into the real world and amplify what they discover. Each student did develop one or several bodies of work around the theme of water. The water was their studio.
Taking account of what has been done in different mediums in the past (cinema, literature, theater, fashion) - students were encouraged to build a visual dynamic with a strong point of view.

A big part of the course was motivated by the idea of finding elements (people, places, things) and turning them into a story. A central emphasis was on collaborating with people: models, actors, dancers, strangers and building their story with them. Casting and creating a growing dialog with their models, finding a common interest and expanding a playful territory to photograph was a recurring exercise.

Studio project (2024) with David Luraschi

Assistants: Giacomo Bastianelli
Students: Nabarun Gogoi, Riccardo Androni, Elisa Azevedo, Francesca Bergamini, Min Dai, Doyoung Kim, Jose Martin Martinez, Eriko Miyata, Visvaldas Morkevicius, Eva Manuela Rivas Bao, Binyu Lin, Hannah Gottschalk, Mirielle Rohr
1st year: 2nd semestre

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MA PHOTOGRAPHY

Daniel Martinez – A River Has No Shore

by Daniel Martinez

Flowing from an Alpine glacier to the Mediterranean Sea, the Rhône River runs through ice caves, forests, cities and industrial sites. It sustains ecosystems, defines geographies and connects cultures across space and time. However, the boundless flux of the world’s waters today faces increasing stories of tragedy and collapse. Climate change doesn’t manifest only on a material level but also overwhelms the emotional dimension of human life. Today, the psychological toll of environmental crisis amplifies states of eco-anxiety and solastalgia, triggered by lived experiences, mediated imagery and narratives of apocalyptic breakdown. A River Has No Shore reflects on the distress caused by climate change and its representation by looking at the water along the Rhône River in its endless forms.

MA PHOTOGRAPHY

Doyoung Kim – Flattened Roughness

by Doyoung Kim

The work Flattened Roughness explores war image consumption and resulting guilt. The photographer collects and prints images of death then lick and absorb them physically, confronting the emotional and physical distance created by media. Suicide drones’ cameras constantly calculate distance to humans for destruction. In this process, the distance between humans is forgotten. To overcome this distance, he brings the images into my body. This act, where intimacy and brutality coexist, transforms voyeurism into mourning and care, confronting my lost humanity. Through sensory performance, he bridges the gap between himself and mediated death, exploring the clash of dulled emotion and sensation. This confessional, physically exhausting work explores alternative sensory approaches for the recovery of broken humanity.

MA PHOTOGRAPHY

Elisa Azevedo – Daydream

by Elisa Azevedo

Daydream is an intimate exploration of sexuality, embodiment, and the search for connection in a world increasingly shaped by performance and consumption. The photographic series began with an investigation of highly sexualized spaces — environments where the body often appears fragmented, mediated, and as a representation. Present, yet absent, lingering only as a trace of desire. By reenacting some of these gestures herself, the photographer embodies a role and expectation that she cannot naturally fulfill. This performative process reveals the dissonance between imposed ideals and personal reality. Through photography, feelings of loneliness, inadequacy, and vulnerability are confronted — but also curiosity, longing, and the wish for a more sincere relation to her own body and her own sense of intimacy.

MA PHOTOGRAPHY

Eriko Miyata – Chronicle Void

by Eriko Miyata

Chronicle Void explores how Japanese pop culture portrays women and shapes societal attitudes, especially around normalized sexual harassment. Growing up female in Japan and later moving to Europe revealed to the photographer how deep implicit biases run across cultures. This video installation blends personal memories with public symbols like anti-harassment signs. Using biased AI filters on childhood photos, she reveals how memory and identity are shaped by social bias. Referencing Japan’s selfie culture, the photographer experiments with AI and video to critique identity, memory, and cultural influence.

MA PHOTOGRAPHY

Eva Manuela Rivas Bao – An Italian Story

by Eva Manuela Rivas Bao

Starting from the trial of former Italian president Berlusconi, An Italian Story examines Italian-Moroccan model and aspiring sports journalist Imane Fadil. Attending the ex-president’s parties, she was a key witness, confessing abuse of power and underage prostitution at his residence in Arcore, near Milan. In 2019, she died at 34, weeks after announcing her upcoming book. Berlusconi reduced the representation of women in Italy to few pixels. The book manipulates "photographic leftovers" and documentary pictures at Imane’s Milan house with AI, aiming to recreate missing images that Fadil shared in court. Deconstructing "an Italian story" - famouspropaganda zine of the ex-president - to reconstruct another Italian story, a collective memory from the rubble of the "Italian failed Me Too" (2010-2023).

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MA PHOTOGRAPHY

Projets similaires See more projects

Daniel Martinez – A River Has No Shore

Doyoung Kim – Flattened Roughness

Elisa Azevedo – Daydream

Eriko Miyata – Chronicle Void

Eva Manuela Rivas Bao – An Italian Story

Related courses See all courses

Projets similaires

See more projects

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