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2006 2024
Photographic Editions

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographic Editions

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.

BURNING CORSO - Thomas Mailaender

PHOTOGRAPHY

BURNING CORSO - Thomas Mailaender

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.

Fine Art Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fine Art 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.

Pratique photographique

PHOTOGRAPHY

Pratique photographique

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.

Blue jeans

PHOTOGRAPHY

Blue jeans

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.

Video

PHOTOGRAPHY

Video

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.

Fine Art Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fine Art Photography

with Laurence Bonvin

Liquid Times Produce a project using photography and video on the theme of fluidity, liquid form and water.

Fine Art Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fine Art 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.

Staged Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Staged 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.

Workshop Digital Medium Format

PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop Digital Medium Format

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.

Applied Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Applied 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.

Video

PHOTOGRAPHY

Video

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.

PRATIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE

PHOTOGRAPHY

PRATIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE

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.

Photographic revelation

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographic revelation

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.

Fine Art Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fine Art 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.

Workshop Photographic chamber

PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop Photographic chamber

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.

Sara De Brito Faustino – Toute petite et vilaine

PHOTOGRAPHY

Sara De Brito Faustino – Toute petite et vilaine

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.“

Matteo Angelé – If I Could Tell You/Se Potessi Dirtelo

PHOTOGRAPHY

Matteo Angelé – If I Could Tell You/Se Potessi Dirtelo

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.”

Valerie Geissbühler – Soft Matter in Interwoven Worlds

PHOTOGRAPHY

Valerie Geissbühler – Soft Matter in Interwoven Worlds

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?“

Jessica Dreier – Margem Sul

PHOTOGRAPHY

Jessica Dreier – Margem Sul

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."

Louis Victorin Michel – Deus Corporatæ

PHOTOGRAPHY

Louis Victorin Michel – Deus Corporatæ

by Louis Victorin Michel

Deus Corporatæ weaves connections between the world of money and power, attempting to portray the corporate world as a numinous fortress. Its imposing architectures convey a sense of absolute presence, an almost sacred dimension. Symbols are scattered around these places, resembling coats of arms, allowing for the recognition of the various corporations in the city. These glass facades illuminate the surroundings by reflecting light through contemporary materials such as glass and steel. All of the rules of capitalist, globalised work culture create a new contemporary mythology, associated with rituals that foster a sense of belonging to this world. The project seeks to establish these new mythologies of financial power, whose façade appears transparent, but often wields influential power on an international level.

Noa Chevalley – Bêche pour dame

PHOTOGRAPHY

Noa Chevalley – Bêche pour dame

by Noa Chevalley

“In the middle of this gravel pit, a vast, artificial and monumental landscape, I try to leave my mark. In mimicry of this environment, I cut into the soil with the strength of my arms. The naked body becomes a tool for digging and filming. It is desexualised in this vain and infinite action. I use my strength to feel more powerful and to detach myself from the normative injunctions that are imposed to me. Despite this, I cannot compete with this place. A relentless battle takes place between the shovel and the ground – a battle that breaks the body and dismantles it. This work mirrors the feeling of inadequacy that comes from the dynamic of striving to meet the expectations that are imposed on us. I do not listen to my body anymore and I am conditioned to accept a world that rips it apart.“

Eloïse Genoud – INSIDE

PHOTOGRAPHY

Eloïse Genoud – INSIDE

by Eloïse Genoud

“INSIDE is a project that focuses on contemporary dance, movement and the human body. It stems from my deep passion for dance and aims to capture the essence of this art form from a personal perspective. Drawing from my 18 years of experience as a dancer, I strive to bring forth the energy, collective spirit and love for the stage that is inherent in this art form. INSIDE alludes to that special moment of stepping into the spotlight, where bodies and light come together in a profound connection. This work is not a documentary on dance, but rather an experimental journey where individuals merge into a common entity. A major part of the project was staged, requiring choreography and active participation in the dances designed exclusively for this production.“

Dominique Bartels – The Threads That Hold the Earth Together

PHOTOGRAPHY

Dominique Bartels – The Threads That Hold the Earth Together

by Dominique Bartels

“Nostalgia for media that resonate with my body. The installation The Threads That Hold the Earth Together explores the plasticity of photographic and videographic image through weaving. Making and juxtaposing photographs is a way for me to create tangible links. The materiality, the body of the image are my starting point. To seize the passage of formlessness to form, I work with different media around linen: the first fabric to cover, clothe and preserve the human body. Three canvases, woven and unwoven with linen, photographic film and magnetic tape, are suspended in space. A video which explores the transformation of flax through different image textures runs in a loop on a TV.“

Inès Mermoud – OS CRIAS

PHOTOGRAPHY

Inès Mermoud – OS CRIAS

by Inès Mermoud

OS CRIAS attempts to shed light on the relationship between children living in various favelas in Rio de Janeiro and the violence that surrounds them. It addresses the subject from a personal point of view, based on family stories and experiences. The documentary book evokes Brazil’s political and social issues from a critical perspective, and links together different types of images. A participatory approach is also highlighted.

Tony Altermatt – huǒlóng

PHOTOGRAPHY

Tony Altermatt – huǒlóng

by Tony Altermatt

“ Huǒlóng evokes the memories and feeling that we might get from a country we have never lived in. We explore then intertwine symbols and images, giving birth to our own culture. From East to West, I create my representation of the second generation of the Chinese diaspora. Silently built, two distinct landscapes merge. Our youth evolves, oscillating between two cultures. The osmosis is palpable, between traditional heritage and desire for emancipation. This fictional story is the fruit of a journey. The protagonists gather to exchange their views. We connect lands, objects and environments. This is our way of representing ethnic mixing: a poetic symphony, where boundaries are dissolved.“

Gaétan Uldry – I NO LONGER LOVE BLUE SKIES

PHOTOGRAPHY

Gaétan Uldry – I NO LONGER LOVE BLUE SKIES

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.

Gwendoline Albasini – Dear Kingdom

PHOTOGRAPHY

Gwendoline Albasini – Dear Kingdom

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.“

Samuel Spreyz – MSM. Rx

PHOTOGRAPHY

Samuel Spreyz – MSM. Rx

by Samuel Spreyz

"Are cis gay men trapped in the medical system forever? Like desiring clones under chemical influence, they are enjoying a new sexual revolution – a revolution under legal drugs. If they want to bring liberalism into their sexuality, they have to become long-term patients. By virtue of PrEP, their use of the health system intensifies and MSM Rx is an attempt to represent this era. My visual essay is driven by my fascination for this lifestyle, a fusion of legal and illegal drugs, sultry parties and consensual hardcore practices."

Diego Fellmann – Lopo

PHOTOGRAPHY

Diego Fellmann – Lopo

by Diego Fellmann

“This work focuses on the last fragments of memories of one of my relatives, Lopo. Initially destined for a political career, he decided to follow a different path. Leaving his family home with his savings, he journeyed through the deserts and salt flats of the Altiplano, seeking his own way. Several years later, my father found his trace in a hotel where they had recorded some songs that Lopo had composed, drawing inspiration from his journey. After that, he mysteriously disappeared and there is almost no trace of him left, except for these recordings. Using models and landscapes, I explore the flaws of memory and their volatile nature and attempt to recreate a portrait of him based on the rare and last memories that my father and mother have of him.“

Ulises Lozano – Coming in

PHOTOGRAPHY

Ulises Lozano – Coming in

by Ulises Lozano

“Adolescence is synonymous with identity construction. Identity is redefined by today’s youth. The aesthetics they adopt reflect a desire for singularity in a changing society. In a collaborative way, I accompany a process of self-affirmation. They blossom and I offer them a space in which to express themselves. Photography takes shape: a safe place for participants to unfold their fantasised personalities – a kind of alter ego in the making. These self-portraits echo the intimate experience of coming in. They become moments of breath, of reconciliation. Through encounters, drawing and photography, they reveal their intimate selves to me. Coming in is a visual interpretation of this process.“

Fine Art Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Fine Art 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.

Video

PHOTOGRAPHY

Video

with Orsola Valenti

Image, sound and politics: how to raise the image The main aim of the course is to stimulate reflection on the audiovisual gesture. By confronting students with the complexity of audiovisual creation and its compositional dimension (image and sound, space and time, frame and rhythm, body and set), they are encouraged to grasp its richness and potential.

Staged Photography

PHOTOGRAPHY

Staged 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.

Images and movement

PHOTOGRAPHY

Images and movement

with Olivia Schenker

During one semester, the students made a very short film on the theme of Simulations. They acquired fundamental notions in the narrative, visual, and conceptual development of a video production.

Workshop Photographic chamber

PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop Photographic chamber

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.

Photographic Essays

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographic Essays

with Matthieu Gafsou

In the second year, the course Photographic Essays course enables students to exercise a documentary photographic practice –one based on a relationship with reality, with something anchored in the here and now. This year, students worked on a theme related to ecology in the broadest sense: a very specific, concrete starting point (a permaculture garden, Extinction Rebellion activists, documentation of polluted sites, encounters with people working with more-than-human animals), a broader, multiple or personal approach.

Photographic Hanging

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographic Hanging

with Laurence Bonvin

For two semesters, second-year students developped projects related to the thematic Reclaiming Water. They were invited to question and procuce images in relation to the countless political, social, economic, human and environmental issues linked to water. Who owns it? Is it a common good or a marketable resource? How can we visually address these issues?

Photographic Editions

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographic Editions

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.

Révélation Photographique

PHOTOGRAPHY

Révélation Photographique

with Laurence Bonvin

During the first semester of the third year, this course enables students to take up a project they have already started, which could be continued in the second semester for the diploma. Students are encouraged to take risks in form, technique, production or subject matter.

PRATIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE

PHOTOGRAPHY

PRATIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE

with Nicolas Poillot

By conceptualizing and producing the visual content for a magazine, themed - RESISTANCE - the students approached the notion of applied photography in a practical, creative and professional way in close collaboration with an Art Director.

Création photographique

PHOTOGRAPHY

Création photographique

with Natacha Lesueur

Over the course of a semester, the students develop a project that examines the challenges of auteur photography and develops their personal expression. The project may be continued as a diploma project in the second semester.

PRATIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE

PHOTOGRAPHY

PRATIQUE PHOTOGRAPHIQUE

with Maxime Guyon

"Sculpture" is an intentionally broad theme to give this semester project in order to stimulate experimentation and freedom of realization. Sculpture is an artistic medium that allows for the realization of volume forms forms in volume thanks to innumerable techniques that have been used since the Paleolithic era to our contemporary society. This is an ambitious project where each student will have to complete a series of images highlighting their creations through advanced techniques of composition and light in the studio. Creating a sculpture is for some artists, for others it is a spontaneous way to elaborate a body of spontaneous way to develop a body of work.

Photographie et arts plastiques

PHOTOGRAPHY

Photographie et arts plastiques

with Natacha Lesueur

Based on projects developed around the theme "Trompe L'oeil and Simulacra", the students developed a personal and in-depth work over an entire semester.

Yann Difford – Is it a mirage or an oasis?

PHOTOGRAPHY

Yann Difford – Is it a mirage or an oasis?

by Yann Difford

“Exoticism stems from what is distant and unfamiliar, but above all from a point of view. This project questions the desire for exoticism, the way it is expressed and unfolded, in a generally unidirectional Western context; i.e. from the West to the rest of the globe. This reconsideration helps us grasp that this is not a state of affairs, but rather a process of exoticisation. I deconstruct this process by decontextualising and recontextualising exotic symbols.“

Basil Pérot – As Long as You Wait

PHOTOGRAPHY

Basil Pérot – As Long as You Wait

by Basil Pérot

This short film is about expressing our inability to come to terms with reality, especially during traumatic events. To reach this state of osmosis, we try to observe, feel, and listen as intensely as we can. This is how Pola’s character tries to grasp reality, as she slowly sinks into madness, between paranoia and identity crisis. The project appears as a transcription of Pola’s point of view and of the feelings she experiences. A book will compile Pola’s thoughts that she writes throughout the film in a burst of lucidity through which she tries to convince herself that what she is experiencing is real.

Camille Spiller – Smooth Space

PHOTOGRAPHY

Camille Spiller – Smooth Space

with RVB Books/Matthieu Charon & Rémi Faucheux

« My work focuses on the construction of the city and addresses my own critical position within the extensive social fabric produced by the city. Inspired by Deleuze and Guattari’s “smooth space” — i.e., open, free-flowing, multidimensional — this work analyses and connects urbanisation processes in various West European cities. Fragments of prefabricated buildings, office blocks and streets aggregate chaotically. By further warping their aspect through the photographic lens their chaos is accentuated thus generating an atmosphere of doubt. Collage in post-production pushes distortion to the point of creating a conundrum between optical illusion and constructed reality.»

Samara Krähenbühl – Il est passé tout à l'heure, il m'a dit de rien dire

PHOTOGRAPHY

Samara Krähenbühl – Il est passé tout à l'heure, il m'a dit de rien dire

by Samara Krähenbühl

« At the turning point of the transition to adulthood, childhood and its memories re-emerge more than ever. Through a short film at the edge of video art, I question how to overcome one’s traumas and reappropriate one’s life experiences and grey areas. Because of its dreamlike character, the film takes on a surrealist tone. Through visual metaphors and mental imagery, I exorcise an intimate and painful episode of my childhood.»

Marvin Merkel – Kuh Vache Mucca

PHOTOGRAPHY

Marvin Merkel – Kuh Vache Mucca

by Marvin Merkel

« Kuh Vache Mucca is an installation through which I question my relationship with Swiss national identity. Having neither passport, family or roots in Switzerland, I have never identified as a Swiss national. The images and sculptures that make up this project bear witness to my attempts at reconciliation with my homeland and its national identity. These clumsy or even failed attempts offer a new approach to national identity. They make the traditions, customs, figures and monuments that every citizen has learned to praise look comical and absurd and thus question their existence. Is it still necessary and legitimate nowadays to maintain a country’s national identity?»

Yolane Rais – Nagual

PHOTOGRAPHY

Yolane Rais – Nagual

by Yolane Rais

« Nagual is the word used by shamans to define the world of the invisible. This project is presented as a sensory installation in a mysterious and spiritual realm, an exploration at the border between the world of the living and the world of the invisible, an attempt to materialise the immaterial that seeks to show other forms of bodies. This project focuses on the sacred and on beliefs through the experience of a different type of reality. It is an introspective work where I transcribe visions that I experienced during various trips made in the presence of shamans. With the different elements I present, I aim to highlight our link to nature and the living, the goal being to show a different perspective and an alternative way to relate to the world.»

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