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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.

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.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Picture Consequences

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

Workshop with Lorenzo Vitturi

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

ECAL × JEAN PAUL GAULTIER: SPORT - CORPS

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

Fine Art Photography

with Laurence Bonvin

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

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.

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.

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.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Service Design - 2024

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.“

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.”

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?“

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."

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.

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.“

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.

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.

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."

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.“

PHOTOGRAPHY

BLI × ECAL

with Matthieu Gafsou

The collaboration between the ECAL and the BLI touches on contemporary issues that are of particular concern to students at the school: our relationship with minorities and the appropriate way of representing them. For a long time, a paternalistic anthropological attitude was tolerated and even encouraged in the world of photography. Attitudes have changed, and the young artists at the ECAL have developed a relationship of equals with the various communities they have encountered. Creating the images required a language that enabled the students to position themselves in relation to others and to establish protocols in line with their own values and those of the people on the other side of the lens. The images give us a complex, multifaceted panorama of our city's cultural diversity, and show us that encounters and mixes are possible and fruitful. Matthieu Gafsou, photographer and teacher.

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.

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.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Magazine - 2023

with Anouk Schneider Agabekov, Chi-Long Trieu

As part of the magazine course led by Anouk Schneider and Chi-Long Trieu, 2nd-year Visual Communication students had the opportunity to design a magazine during the second semester. Students were encouraged to explore their artistic freedom at all stages of creation, whether it be in terms of format, paper choice, binding, layout, illustrations, text, or typography. In this course, the magazine can take shape through various forms of illustrations, such as photography, reproduction, contextualization, drawing, 3D, etc. The focus is on the artist's vision and the methods used to bring it to life. Students take on multiple roles as editor, curator, and architect, covering responsibilities such as art director, designer, photographer, stylist, illustrator, typographer, editor-in-chief, and editorial assistant. This course highlights contemporary editorial design by exploring the narrative potential of a well-structured content sequence.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Vampire week

with Jean-Vincent Simonet

During one week, the students developed techniques that transform perception and the relationship with the corpus of images: erasure, displacement, loss of the sensation of reality.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Pop Ups and Masks

with Taiyo Onorato

This workshop focused on staged photography, particularly emphasizing staged portraits. The concentration was on the two essential elements of the portrait: working with the object and manipulating its background. Staged portraits set themselves apart from mere snapshots by actively creating an image, steering clear of reality. Tools like light, background, and pose were employed to craft a deliberate narrative. Individuals were staged, altered in specific ways, adorned with outfits and masks. The workshop delved into the interest in masks as tools for transformation and representation. Throughout the workshop, masks were produced using available means, and they became the central objects of staging. Students photographed and filmed them, capturing the essence of transformation. The second element of the workshop, which focused on the background, pop-up techniques were experimented with. The backdrop, a dynamic part of the narrative, was manipulated using cleverly designed sets and unexpected spatial techniques. The focus was not just on capturing moments but on crafting them, bringing forth stories that transcended the boundaries of reality. The workshop provided a platform for unleashing creativity and experimentation.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Dissolution of genres and austerity in prise de vue

with Geray Mena

The workshop focused on the dissolution of genres within photography: documentary, fashion, still life and portraiture. Students built bridges between commercial and artistic practice.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Afterhuman

with Elizaveta Porodina

For this workshop, Elizaveta Porodina asked the students to explore the theme "AFTERHUMAN". This theme opens up perspectives for capturing futuristic landscapes, representing the potential fusion of technology and humanity. Think about visually depicting the coexistence of artificial intelligence, cybernetics or biotechnology with natural elements. Experiment with innovative techniques to convey a sense of evolution or transcendence. This exploration invites photographers to creatively interpret and visually narrate a future beyond conventional human experience.