Workshop 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.

Workshop (2026) with Rineke Dijkstra

Assistants: Inès Riber
Students: Ava Barbieri, Célia Bigler, Cecília Bueno, Fiona Caballero, Justine Diep, Inès Hayoz, Carla Katsuva-Sivahera, Chloé Loichot, Pierre Mahé, Magali Monin, Nora Neves, Noé Pizzera, Théo Previdoli, Antoine Soulié, Céleste Tabourdeau, Elisa Vareilhes, Tristan Wadsworth
1st year program: 2nd semester
Know-how: Imagemaking, Documentary, Portrait

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with Philippe Jarrigeon

Drawing inspiration from the 19th-century archives of photographer André Schmid, second-year Bachelor’s students collaborated with the Lausanne History Museum to create an inspiring dialogue between the past and the present. For most of the students, his name was unfamiliar. Discovering his work, preserved in the collections of the Lausanne History Museum, opened up a field of exploration that was both historical and artistic. Through André Schmid’s images, a foundational chapter in Swiss photography was revealed to them. Through an immersion in the archives, they were invited to engage in a dialogue with this pioneering practice—not to cite or reproduce it, but to reimagine it, question it, and interpret it, thereby creating a tension between the origins of photography and its most contemporary developments.

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ANALOG MEDIUM FORMAT WORKSHOP

with Anoush Abrar

DRIVE For this week’s theme, “Drive,” first-year photography students were asked to create a portrait shot on medium-format film. Inspired by the sensation of a first driving experience, travel, empowerment, or discovery, the week aimed to explore the relationship between one or more people and a vehicle.

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Last Minute Risk

with Natacha Lesueur

“What is clearly conceived can be clearly expressed, and the words to say it come easily.” Nicholas Boileau, *L’art poétique*. As students embark on their final year of study at ECAL, with their interests and methods taking shape, this final project offers an opportunity to challenge their own rules, established practices and influences, to refuse to settle for the status quo and to take risks.

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Analog Medium format workshop – 2026

with Anoush Abrar

Deconstructed Portrait The goal of this workshop, led by photographer Anoush Abrar, is to explore the meaning of the contemporary portrait. Working with the concept of the “deconstructed portrait,” the students created an image in pairs. The Digital Medium Format workshop week serves as an introduction to both photography equipment and specialized software.

BA GRAPHIC DESIGN

Darina Komm – Threads

by Darina Komm

For centuries, the knowledge of embroidery was passed down among women, gradually becoming a tradition and an integral part of culture. Threads reflects a contemporary perspective, exploring embroidery as a form of visual communication. Here, ornaments treated as a structured language — one that carries ideas of protection, identity, and conection. Rooted in the traditions of Central Ukraine between late 19th and early 20th centuries, Threads combines research with interpretation, offering not only historical insight but also a personal attempt to reconnect with cultural memory through photography, pattern, and storytelling.

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ECAL X MHL – ECAL After Schmid

ANALOG MEDIUM FORMAT WORKSHOP

Last Minute Risk

Analog Medium format workshop – 2026

Darina Komm – Threads

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