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 Tarbourdeau, Elisa Vareilhes, Tristan Wadsworth
1st year program: 2nd semester
Know-how: Imagemaking, Documentary, Portrait

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Lidia Molina González – Toilet Break Magazine

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It all started with taking a break. A pause. A moment alone in a shared space: quiet, ordinary, a little strange. Toilets might not be the first place you’d look for big ideas, but that’s why we chose them. Toilet Break uses this overlooked space to explore how we live together, take space, and connect. This first issue is about in-betweens: between public and private, inside and outside. It gathers voices from Switzerland, Belgium, Japan, across generations and practices. A place where ideas circulate freely, where serious things can be said with a wink. A collective and personal space to test new editorial forms, listen more carefully, and believe in detours as a way forward. To take, quite literally, a moment to reflect and sit with things.

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“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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