Photographic Essays – 2025

Photographic Essays – 2025

This year's “Documentary Practices” course is devoted to a territory that is very close to us and, in a way for most of us, very far away: the countryside. For a city-dweller, the countryside is an out-of-town territory where you can go for a walk, where there are farmers, fields and forests. Recent votes in Switzerland testify to a considerable widening of the gap between town and country: the far right would be the place of rurality, while the left would be urban. This territory is not only topologically different from the city, but also seems to be inhabited by people whose lifestyles and thinking are at odds with the city. The reality, however, is obviously more complex and resists such simplification.

Studio project (2025) with Matthieu Gafsou

Assistants
Léo Paschoud
Students
Lee Eggenschwiler, Rose Graf, Melanie Rengifo, Shiny Vallenas
2nd year program
1st and 2nd semester
Know-how
Documentary
Shiny Vallenas - ECAL
Shiny Vallenas - ECAL/Gilian Cardaci
Shiny Vallenas - ECAL
Shiny Vallenas - ECAL
Shiny Vallenas - ECAL
Shiny Vallenas - ECAL

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Projects related to Documentary

Documentary film workshop with Verena Paravel - 2026

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.

Documentary Film Workshop with Marie-Eve Hildbrand - 2026

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.

Workshop with Rineke Dijkstra

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.

Arnaud Wenger – How You Read, How You Know

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.

Joanna Metz – Galerie Nationale

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.

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