PHOTOGRAPHY
with RVB Books/Matthieu Charon & Rémi Faucheux
Using pre-produced images, the students created one or more book models. How do you transform a series of photographs into a book? The Photographic Editions course introduces students to the selection of images, their order, format, graphics, ink, paper and binding. It addresses the specificities of the book as a medium and as a market.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Thomas Mailaender
In the spring of 2024, Thomas Mailaender and the students of the ECAL Bachelor in Photography entered the ruins of the club with the intention of making it resonate once again. Between archaeology, documentary research, and imaginative speculations, the group of adventurers crafted a surprising exhibition path blending mold and glitter, ashes and glamour. For one night, the Corso was filled with explosive sounds and images in a fiery tribute to the nights of Renens.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Natacha Lesueur
Last minute risk As the students enter their final year of training at the ECAL, and their interests and methods take shape, it's time to take advantage of this last project to question our own rules, achievements and influences, not to be satisfied with them, and to take risks.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Maxime Guyon
"Extraordinary Daily Commodities": Everyday Objects What if the objects around us were not mere tools, but autonomous entities with their own essence? Inspired by Graham Harman's Object-Oriented Ontology (OOO), this semester invited students to explore objects from a fresh perspective. Freed from the shadow of our consciousness, they take a place equal to that of humans, animals, and plants. Guided by Maxime Guyon, second-year photography students were encouraged to rediscover what "banal" truly means and dive into a reflection on the place and sensitivity of objects in the contemporary world.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Philippe Jarrigeon, Philippe Jarrigeon
This year, a unique workshop invited students to explore the relationship between an object and its image. By delving into the material properties, history, symbolism, and multiple representations of an iconic object, they sought to understand the aura that defines it. The subject of this first edition? The blue jean. From a simple utilitarian garment to a global symbol of style, the blue jean transcends generations and cultures. Throughout the semester, students were tasked with creating a photographic project or video that both questions and celebrates this emblematic object.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Tamara Janes
The students task is to create their own story, storyline, narrative or sequences based on the existing given images. Using their personal interests, imagination and ideas they link the images together. They can continue the plot of the images, do in-depth research, write fictional stories or tell stories based on personal experiences. The students had the freedom to photograph, generate or film.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Lorenzo Vitturi
The aim of this workshop is to engage students in a multidisciplinary process that combines photography with sculpture and scenography. To emphasize the importance of the creative process, students are encouraged to use primarily collected and recycled materials, which will need to be transformed and integrated into their visual narrative. The work presented at the end of the workshop will reflect this approach, combining visual results with sculptures and ephemeral installations.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Florence Tétier, Nicolas Coulomb
SPORT - CORPS : Jeux Olympiques et Paralympiques The project is based on the theme of the body, with a view to staging physical effort. The recent context of the Olympic and Paralympic Games logically frames the choice of sport as an aesthetic means of highlighting different forms of bodily expression. The choice of discipline could be classic, out-of-games or even imaginary. The students worked around a certain vision of physical effort, movement, constraint, a form of discipline, or even joy.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Olivia Schenker
Hot N Cold By making a very short film, students learn fundamental notions in the narrative, visual and conceptual development of video production. The project provides essential technical skills in shooting, lighting, camera movement, sound recording, editing and post-production.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Laurence Bonvin
Liquid Times Produce a project using photography and video on the theme of fluidity, liquid form and water.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Natacha Lesueur
Documentary, the power of make-believe. Based on projects developed around a common theme, the students develop a personal, in-depth project around the theme of pretense. They build a project that plays with the limits of veracity in photography, using it as an artifice of deception.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Charlotte Krieger
The aim of this course is to introduce students to the creation and management of a complex photographic project involving sets, characters and lighting. The theme is free.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Anoush Abrar
Beauty shot The week-long Medium format digital workshop is both an introduction to shooting equipment and dedicated software. Students worked in groups to produce portrait images.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Calypso Mahieu
Waliking in Renens A collaborative project in which students were asked to choose a local shop in Renens and to create a documentary project combining images of still life, architecture and portraits.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Orsola Valenti
Hors-champ “Showing by hiding, revealing by stealing": for a political practice of the audiovisual image. The main aim of the course is to raise awareness of the political dimension of the audiovisual gesture and give students the tools to distinguish the cinematographic image from the media image. Whereas the latter - flattened, emptied and therefore interchangeable - overwhelms its receptor, rendering it powerless, the cinematographic image liberates emotion and critical reflection. In this way, it goes beyond the supposedly faithful representation of reality.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Seraphine Sallin-Mason
Abortion is a fundamental right. In the United States, its practice has been restricted in half the country in recent years. The 'A' Word seeks to address this issue. In media, the associated Pro-Life/Pro-Choice iconographies are expressed with similar communication codes. These channels sensationalize the topic to startle and offend. This sensationalism distances us from the reality of abortion and the people seeking access to this care. From this visual material obtained through various resources, The 'A' Word aims to dissolve these mechanisms and reconstruct a more complex vision that, I hope, will allow us to take a critical look at this essential issue.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Cyriane Rawyler
Medusa is a collaborative project linking performance to hyperfemininity. This physical exploration symbolizes the reappropriation of the body through transformation. The need to exchange and meet these protagonists arose from a personal event that allowed me to regain control of a destroyed space. Blonde hair, length, and shine unite us to create a community. Through photography, the notions of self-image and control interact, creating celestial beings that tame space. Medusa aims to understand and accept the multiple facets of identity, offering a means of rebellion and self-affirmation.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Yves Möhrle
BIPEDIE(BOO) is a video installation that combines humour and seriousness. Inspired by rockfalls in Switzerland, a modern myth has been created. A personification of rockfalls, embodying the incomprehensible and inexplicable. The videos show a figure walking through the mountains and throwing stones down the slope. Hypocritically, she lectures us. In a naïve hope that small gestures can bring about big changes, the nostalgic aesthetic of the project underlines the link between past and present and raises the question of our management of natural risks. Do our actions really bring progress or do they fight symptoms? What is our role in the Anthropocene? Do our actions influence nature and cause stones to fall?
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Yan Miranda
Guided by psilocybin, Reverie Rebirth is an intimate journey into trauma healing. These experiences allowed me to reconnect with the innocence of childhood, with myself and with nature. Through new technological tools and analog photography, I was able to document and illustrate the visions of my inner journey. Imbued with Afro-Brazilian divinities, this exploration reflects on my cultural heritage and identity. The evolution of the project moved towards an engagement with nature and ecology. Inspired by a return to Brazil, it symbolizes the confrontation of deeper issues and blends with various artistic typologies to address themes of fear, anger and the degradation of nature.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Barnabé Masson
I gathered eight close friends of my father, who passed away ten years ago. Together, we delved into the feelings induced by absence and mourning. With the help of cameras, I observe the bodies of these sixty-year-old men to explore tenderness, emotions, and the various spontaneous manifestations that emerge when they are confronted with strong emotions. These male bodies, usually under constant logical control, in the image of our culture and economy. The video shows hands, arms, faces, and eyes, sometimes embarrassed, sometimes resistant, and sometimes allowing themselves to be overwhelmed by emotions. This work has allowed me, through these men, to reconstruct my father, to confront him, and to examine my relationship with masculinity.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Mathilde Lesueur
From an impressive loss of control to an explosion of shattered glass, I find myself in the middle of a wavering and inevitable chaos. I hold on to an uncertain light and let my body give in to the injuries. Between reconstruction and obsession, Collision explores how car accidents and injuries are shown in modern images. This work mixes the violence of my story with the way I make it attractive and digitalized. I represent myself through the image of broken doll, I create a confusion between the real and the unreal, symbolizing memory after a traumatic event. This project, an installation using chrome and glass, takes place in a setting where the gaze of the others and an injured girl interact.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Lorane Hochstätter
This book explores the complexity of the development of a girl's feminine identity through the education and gaze of her mother, the first and most powerful model of femininity. My mother, former model, seemed to emerge from a magazine cover: the embodiment of overwhelming norms of feminine representation. Our image develops in a mirror: she projects herself onto me, remembering what she was and inspecting what she no longer is; I project myself onto her, seeing what I would like to be but what I'am not. These self-portraits twist and disguise my body, caught between emancipation and subordination to imposed codes. This book deals with the love-rejection relationship between a mother and her daughter, who accompany and evolve together in a never-ending quest: the search for a feminine identity.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Jennica Folkesson
CHACUNE is an installation focusing on the theme of transmission. Clay, a symbol of connections, is extracted and shaped to bear witness to a shared past. The sense of touch, essential and unifying, is employed as a means of creation, linking us women together. Each ceramic piece represents a page in our collective story, shaped by the passage of time. Here, time manifests as a journey. From mother to daughter, from Switzerland to Mexico, we explore the lands that hold our ancestors.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Albane Durand-Viel
Magdalena focuses on a forgotten or unknown female figure, Mary Magdalene. She was Jesus’ favorite, first witness and mysterious apostle. Her story has been written and told by men, who attributed to her several identities : as a saint, a socialite, a prostitute, a lover and a mystic woman. A thousand faces are often attributed to her, preferring to reduce her to erroneous female stereotypes. Yet Mary Magdalene was a key figure in History and a powerful symbol of feminine independence. This project aims to restore her story, by choosing our contemporary era as context. Imagining a scenario in which Mary Magdalene occupies a central place in today's media space, what would her fate and power be?
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Matilde Croxatto
This film is an intimate exploration of masculinity through the prism of faith. We discover the testimonies of eight young men through their relationship with God. Through interviews and scenes from everyday life, they reveal the beauty and complexity of this relationship. Based on my own experience as a believer, I've come to realise that faith, with its vulnerable and intimate qualities, can be seen as an experience that no longer affects traditional masculinity. To verify this, I gave the floor to men who choose the resilient path of faith on a daily basis. Their devotion is brought to light, an expression of the heart that goes beyond gender stereotypes and invites reflection on the humility of the individual towards an entity greater than himself.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Carla Corminboeuf
A performance in a square of light, a surface echoing the competition carpet. A melancholy memory of a carpet that no longer exists, a carpet symbolizing constraints. The body enters this restricted space and measures it to the tempo of a metronome. Repetitive movements follow, until the effort is felt. A live projection is added in the background, produced with two cameras placed in the diagonals of the square, reproducing the jurors' point of view. Video archives footage of training scenes then scrolls past, showing a body forced into contortions by relentless trainers. It's a questioning several aspects of rhythmic gymnastics, a sport I practiced for years, and whose training methods are being questioned by the medical world.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Hector Codazzi
Synopsis : From one image to another, Louise, aged 25, strives to find her place in the demanding world of modeling. As a young photographer being increasingly involved in the world of imagery and advertising through my professional experiences, I wanted to take a closer look at this world that both fascinates and repels me in some ways, but above all intrigues me with its ambiguous relationship to reality. I directed a short film that depicts the trajectory of a model in this industry, a fiction that aims to address several questions : the self-staging induced by the profusion of images, the mechanisms of oppression related to the creation of advertising images, the pursuit of social mobility by young generations and how this pursuit clashes with the reality of the job market.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Johanna Bommer
Changing Rooms is a site-specific photographic installation about a very recent past. A figure in the transitional period of adolescence navigates commercial and digital environments. She constructs herself through the images she sees, engaging in a form of self-commodification while immersed in these two spaces. A pile of dust, greasy hair or a scratch on an otherwise perfect surface disturb the smoothness of the virtual and the commercial space. She finds comfort in her anonymity. She dislikes being perceived but desires to be seen. A reflection becomes a mirror becomes a screen becomes a door.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Léa Bevilacqua
"I had the occasion to go back to Santarém, in northern Brazil, my origin town to discuss beauty standards, identity, and self-expression with eight individuals I met there. Growing up as a bi-national woman (Swiss and Brazilian), I struggled with conflicting beauty ideals. The people I met there were often seen as weird, ugly, or inadequate by the society, I thought they were unique and brave for standing out in a region that prize conformity over self-expression. These encounters allowed us to share experiences and, on a more political note, emphasize their value in response to the recent rising hate against minorities in Brazil."
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Anna von Allmen
Nos vies sur vos murs (Our lives on your walls) grew out of a collaboration with fourteen young people from the Pierre-à-Bot neighbourhood in the heights of Neuchâtel. Over a six-month period, I organised workshops with young people aged between seven and twelve, which formed the basis of this experiment. During our meetings, I initiated discussions around the theme of love, a feeling that is often so complex to grasp. I shared moments of their lives with them, collected their texts and asked them to use disposable cameras to draw pictures of love. In this book, our visions come together to create a portrait of the neighbourhood and the imaginary worlds that develop there.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Noé Vercaemst
With Davide Fecarotti, a student at Ensp in Arles, we worked as a duo around a geographical area between southern Italy and Sicily. We discovered a particular structure. A structure that exists only in the collective imagination of its inhabitants. Engineers call it “the highest bridge in the world”. Here, it's simply called “ponte”, the bridge that doesn't exist. We arrived here like Ulysses in the Strait of Messina, between Scylla and Carribdis, but without the Argonauts. A ruin, an architectural project, surviving like a myth, a monster, a chimera with arms of steel... but in reality, an instrument of power and seduction, at the service of Italy's political leaders for years.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Lea Sblandano
The pixels expand and appear ever closer to the sensible world into which I was born. Neijuan explores the complexities of identity construction in a post-pandemic, hyper-connected world. Meaning "involution" in Mandarin, it evokes a sense of generational fatigue due to an ever-faster and competitive society. Between the feeling of a collective burn-out and the increasingly immersive presence of screens, virtual worlds become places of refuge and safety, but also fertile ground for interested encounters and fantasies. The screen turns into an emancipatory and formative means of connection, while increasingly distancing the individual from the tangible world around them.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Antoine Woeffray
Antoine_Woeffray: Hi readers! Antoine_Woeffray: I’m Antoine_Woeffray Antoine_Woeffray: But they also call me mr_paramount mr_paramount: Hi readers! mr_paramount: I’m mr_paramount mr_paramount: But my friends call me Antoine mr_paramount: My doctor call me also Antoine_Woeffray mr_paramount: Actually on my ID card the name written is Antoine_Woeffray mr_paramount: But my online lovers call me mr_paramount This project, which takes the form of a book, is an investigation into the representation of the male body and what it means to be a man. A digital construction of a physical being. The body passes through the image before being transformed.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Léo Paschoud
This work takes the form of a series of three books compiling images from conversations collected on various online second-hand sales sites. A specific protocol defines the message sent to the sellers to obtain a photo in return. Each book focuses on a specific object: the camera, the mirror, and the laptop webcam. The aim of this project is to explore the behavior of online sellers. To obtain the desired image, with the correct shooting angle, the process relies on their desire to sell these objects and allows for the observation of their different reactions. If the protocol is successful, images are received; otherwise, responses of indignation, annoyance, insults, or even silence are encountered.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Gilian Cardaci
This work documents the issues surrounding a professional football field and its artificial maintenance. The turf on these pitches must be maintained to comply with the high standards dictated by FIFA to enhance the image of the sport. Specific tools have been developed to meet this demand. Pitch Green turns football on its head with a fascination for what goes on behind the scenes, creating an imagery reminiscent of science fiction. The contrast between the natural turf and these ultra-technological tools lends an absurd edge to their real purpose. These pitches, which appear perfect to the viewer, reveal the excesses of football and its corrupt business.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Laure Brandford Griffith
La foule nous regarde revolves around an obsessive gaze on strangers that resonates with the loss of a loved one. In the search for this person, he explores collective identity through clothing, physical attitude and human bonds, where the stranger becomes the reflection of a lost personal history. The crowd is both the plurality of personality in the lost being marked by crises of dissociation, and these unknown people bringing him back into my life.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Angelo Benedetto, Vincent Jacquier, Pauline Saglio, Calypso Mahieu
During the Service Design course, the 3rd year of the Graphic Design, Photography and Media & Interaction Design bachelors had to create multi-media projects. A collaboration of the Visual Communication department which had as subject the SDGs (*Sustainable Development Goals). The theme was called "For a good cause, make the SDGs a reality" and its objective was to allow students to develop a cause that is close to their hearts. Each project consists of at least two different media, one primary and one secondary. These projects could take any form that the students deemed relevant, be it a website, editions, posters, a video sequence or virtual reality.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Charlotte Krieger, Jean-Vincent Simonet, Florian Pittet (Sigmasix), Vincent Jacquier, Julien Gurtner, Matthieu Minguet, Cédric Duchêne, EPFL+ECAL Lab, Giacomo Bastianelli
For a week, the first-year visual communications students worked on an installation consisting of 15 screens, accompanied by a 360° sound system developed by EPFL+ECAL Lab. This chandelier, five metres in diameter and suspended from a height of three metres, served as a support for their experiments. Using music specially composed and spatialised for the occasion, the students explored the dynamics of sound both visually and in movement.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Nicolas Poillot
The "Commission & Photography" course aims to conceptualize and produce visual content for an editorial series, emphasizing applied photography and collaboration with an Art Director. It allows students to explore various photographic territories such as editorial, documentary, fashion, still life, and fiction. Objectives include understanding editorial commissions, conceptualizing and presenting ideas, as well as effectively collaborating with an Art Director. Students are required to produce a series of images while adhering to the given theme and constraints, while also developing preliminary research, a structured methodology, series architecture, and finding solutions to creative problems encountered. The theme involves each student selecting and photographing three personal objects that are particularly meaningful to them.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Laurence Bonvin
Endurance In this course, the objectives are to allow students to experiment with new approaches or techniques regarding past, ongoing, or diploma projects. They also have the opportunity to revisit and refine subjects that have not met their satisfaction in terms of concept, form, technique, or execution. This experience aims to expand ideas, refine techniques, continue unfinished work while improving it, or build a more comprehensive body of images. Endurance lies at the heart of this process, whether it's persevering in completing a project, revisiting an idea until it's exhausted, or overcoming obstacles such as lack of time, self-confidence, or courage. This semester thus offers students the opportunity to confront their limits, surpass them, and achieve their best in their endeavors.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Natacha Lesueur
Seduce, they said Based on projects developed around the theme of seduction, students develop a personal, in-depth project over the whole semester.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Sami Benhadj, Vincent Jacquier
An immersive and magnetic visual environment, created by ECAL students, illuminates the facades of the mudac and Photo Elysée building. As part of an interdisciplinary project within the Visual Communication department of ECAL, students in the Photography, Graphic Design and Media & Interaction Design Bachelors programs developed immersive video projects designed to adorn the facades of Photo Elysée.
GRAPHIC DESIGN
MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Emma Grosu, Seraphine Sallin-Mason, Rebecca Alfandary
The Anthracite project aims to raise public awareness about the dangers of light pollution, which threatens the survival of nocturnal insects and impacts biodiversity in Switzerland. Through a carefully crafted edition blending scientific outreach and photography, the project strikes a delicate balance between poetry and urgency. Anthracite also takes shape in two additional formats: a visual installation made up of striking images, and a teaser video. These mediums of awareness immerse the audience by adopting the perspective of an insect, inviting viewers to directly experience the effects of human-caused pollution. Ultimately, the project seeks to inspire greater protection for the vulnerable insects at risk.
PHOTOGRAPHY
with Matthieu Gafsou
The workshop week 4x5 is both an introduction to the 4x5 technical camera and a way to kickstart a photographic project. Students experience the process of analog shooting, from development to large format printing. This intense week is highly technical, but also focused on developing a photographic language, allowing for a better understanding of the fundamental workings of photography.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Sara De Brito Faustino
“This project presents the home as a place where uncanniness and vernacular commonness exist side by side. Being an intimate space, a home should be a restful and secure place. However, mine has been the scene of some painful events. Today, I see this house as threatening. Uncomfortable and dysfunctional, it bears the scars of the past. In my photographs, I revisit those memories and reclaim my body. My tiny dioramas express my young self’s ideals opposed to the wounds I currently bear. Constructing, deconstructing, objects become bodies, whereas my being feels deformed and petrified. Toute petite et vilaine (“Tiny and Ugly”) creates an antagonistic tension between appealing visuals and disturbing details.“
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Gwendoline Albasini
Dear Kingdom is a story told through storytelling. A fictional figure embodies the princess trapped in her role, the horse who frees her and the witch who casts a spell. These archetypes confront intimate questions about the female gender and seek to dismantle collective ideals. The dream castle, once we look beyond its ramparts, vanishes into thin air. The video immerses the viewer in a world as majestic as it is oppressive. The soundtrack consists of singing and violin. The sounds can be both powerful and frail, revealing the beauty of the disparities. “Dear Kingdom is an appeal to the projections of a social and personal ideal. In this message there is a desire to share my path in this imposing, theatrical and fanciful universe.“
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Gaétan Uldry
The drone is a machine for control, surveillance and suppression that is increasingly used and improved in its technological evolution. The drone acts as a prism that recreates a new reality, filtering and annihilating the real world. The image produced is a kind of mirage, devoid of meaning. The machine creates a deliberate feeling of distance with the need to confront death. This book highlights this new reality by collecting, cropping and assembling images produced by drones to denounce the absurdity and danger of these devices for carrying out violence. It questions the status of these images, whose plasticity and aesthetics obscure and conceal the true nature of their function, which remains to control, monitor and kill.
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Matteo Angelé
This reappropriation project attempts to question the influence of context and medium by reusing pornographic images from homosexual magazines of the 1980s – a decade marked by the discovery of AIDS. Originally created for purely pornographic purposes, these images, representing bodies devoid of movement and stemming from bondage culture, describe the male archetype as characterised by Rudy Lemcke in A History of Violence: “Born and shaped by violence (…), we exist in a world where these dynamics of power and control are already operating for, with and against us. The effects of violence are a part of who we are.”
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Valerie Geissbühler
“Soft Matter in Interwoven Worlds is a multifaceted installation that brings together narratives focusing on the potato. These stories retrace the tuber’s journey from Peru, its birthplace, to Switzerland. A soft matter is an entity that is perceived as unheroic and taken for granted. Instead of reducing the potato to a food plant, I see it as a resilient carrier of life as well as a creature. The boundaries between endings and beginnings blur as I navigate the ambiguity of birth, growth, death and loss. I merge ancestral knowledge and autofictional imagery by moving among multiple perspectives, territories and times, my bicultural identity and womanhood. All this brings me back to the roots of it all and leaves me to wonder: did I raise you or did you give birth to me?“
PHOTOGRAPHY
by Jessica Dreier
"Margem Sul explores the social and political history of Portugal, focusing on the south margin opposite Lisbon. I documented Barreiro, Almada, Moita and Trafaria, with a focus on Segundo Torrão. After the Carnation Revolution in 1974, Angolan, Mozambican, Cape Verdean, Guinean and Santomean populations settled here, forming a strong comunity. Local rappers denounce the growing gentrification of Trafaria. The State justifies the demolitions on security grounds but remains evasive about their real motivations. Since the end of 2022, more and more homes have been demolished and people evicted. My work seeks to amplify the voice of the actors, expressing a variety of situations, from wandering to overt situations."