PHOTOGRAPHY

Farah Mirzayeva – ANOMALIES

by Farah Mirzayeva

Inspired by a background in chemistry, ANOMALIES explores the boundary between scientific imagery and visual construction. After photographing machines which process or store data in EPFL laboratories, the images are modified by using scanning as a tool of transformation, to alter, glitch and deform. The process mimics the machines themselves: the codified images are systematically rescanned to gain new materiality, they become textured, unstable, and paradoxically analogue. The installation recreates the skeleton of a microscope seen in a laboratory, becoming a modular photographic sculpture of metal. A book completes this project: through sequencing, zooms and accumulation, it mirrors data processing in order to reveal the immateriality and abstraction of scientific research.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Endurance - 2025

with Laurence Bonvin

Take risks, experiment, and try out new approaches or techniques in relation to a current or past project, or their future graduation project. Encourage them to take a project or idea further by experimenting with methodology, technique, and production methods, rather than relying on familiar processes, solutions, know-how, or tried-and-true formulas.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Suspended Motion

with Nicolas Poillot

By conceptualizing and producing visual content as part of an editorial series, students will explore the concept of applied photography in a practical, creative, and professional manner, working closely with Art Director Nicolas Poillot.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Maisie Cuisine Book

with Maisie Cousins

The aim of this workshop, led by photographer Maisie Cousins, is to use photography as a tool to broaden our powers of observation. During the week, students explored macro photography to create miniature and abstract worlds using everyday objects and accessories. This invites us to reflect: what else are we overlooking in our immediate environment?

PHOTOGRAPHY

ECAL x Moncler

with Philippe Jarrigeon

Drawing on Moncler’s Alpine heritage, its timeless style, and its technical mastery, the ECAL Bachelor Photography students developed their own interpretation of the brand’s visual language, blending documentary photography with staged scenes, and merging reality with fiction, under the artistic direction of French photographer Philippe Jarrigeon. As part of Paris Photo 2025, the students’ work was showcased at the Moncler boutique on the Champs-Élysées.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Magazine - 24/25

with Anouk Schneider Agabekov, Emmanuel Crivelli

As part of the magazine course led by Anouk Schneider and Emmanuel Crivelli, second-year Visual Communication students had the opportunity to design a magazine during the second semester. Students were encouraged to fully embrace their artistic freedom at every level of creation, whether in terms of format, paper choice, binding, layout, illustration, text, or typography. In this course, the magazine can take shape through various forms of illustration, such as photography, reproduction, contextualization, drawing, 3D, and more. The focus is placed on the author’s artistic vision and the means used to bring it to life. Students take on multiple roles as editor, curator, and architect, assuming the responsibilities of art director, designer, photographer, stylist, illustrator, typographer, editor-in-chief, and editorial secretary. This course highlights contemporary editorial design by exploring the narrative potential of a carefully crafted content sequence.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

Le livre d’artiste - 24/25

with Anouk Schneider Agabekov, Nicolas Polli

As part of the editorial design course led by Anouk Schneider and Nicolas Polli, second-year Visual Communication students had the opportunity to design an artist’s book during the first semester. This book project stands out for its contemporary approach, aiming to create an editorial object that harmoniously integrates form and content within today’s publishing landscape. Students were encouraged to fully embrace their artistic freedom at every stage of the creative process—whether in terms of format, paper choice, binding, layout, illustrations, text, or typography. Within this course, the artist’s book can take shape through various modes of illustration, such as photography, reproduction, contextualization, drawing, 3D, and more. The emphasis is placed on the author’s artistic vision and the means implemented to bring it to life. Students take on multiple roles as editor, curator, and architect, thereby covering the responsibilities of art director, designer, photographer, stylist, illustrator, typographer, editor-in-chief, and copy editor. This course highlights contemporary editorial design by exploring the narrative potential of a carefully constructed content sequence.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Workshop with Thomas Rousset

with Thomas Rousset

The aim of this workshop is to explore the boundary between docu-fiction and magic realism in photography, using the architecture and spaces of the ECAL as a narrative framework. Both approaches are rooted in reality, but differ in the way they inject fiction.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Dissapearing Bodies – 2025

with Laurence Bonvin

Dissapearing Bodies invites you to think around the question of the disappearance of the body in today's world, which is increasingly virtualised and disconnected from physical reality, and in which more and more activities are delegated to machines. The augmented body, virtual reality, 3D, social networks - these are just some of the tools available to us through our new devices, smart phones and others, which are revolutionising our relationship with our bodies. Controlling, optimising and managing our physical activity, our sleep, our diet, our bodies that are slipping away from us.

PHOTOGRAPHY

PROJECTIONS XXL 2024

with Jean-Vincent Simonet

As part of this second edition of XXL Projections, 2nd-year Bachelor of Photography students from ECAL/Ecole cantonale d'art de Lausanne developed projects in a course dedicated to the creation of video mapping. Supervised by Jean-Vincent Simonet, this course enabled students to conceive immersive creations designed to animate the facades of mudac and Photo Elysée with creativity and fantasy.

PHOTOGRAPHY

Summer University Athens

with Nikolas Venturakis

Athens, the cradle of Western civilization and the vibrant capital of Greece, offers a unique blend of ancient history and modernity.Taking advantage of the Summer University program, second-year Bachelor of Photography students had the opportunity to explore this mythical city and collaborate with photographer Nikolas Venturakis. Amidst ancient ruins, lively neighborhoods, and Mediterranean landscapes, the students were able to develop a rich photographic language. This immersion in the heart of the city, where the ancient meets the contemporary, allowed them to deepen their artistic vision while enjoying the local cultural vibrancy. The cobbled streets, bustling markets, and golden hues of the Athenian sunset served as the backdrop for a unique photographic project, capturing the soul and energy of this timeless metropolis.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

GRAPHIC DESIGN

MEDIA & INTERACTION DESIGN

PHOTOGRAPHY

SYNC SCREEN

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.

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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.

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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

Analog Medium Format Workshop

with Anoush Abrar

For this week's "sitter" theme, first-year photography students were asked to imagine a medium-format analog portrait. The term "sitter" was historically used in photography to designate the person posing for a portrait. This use dates back to the early days of photography, when long exposure times were necessary and subjects had to remain motionless for extended periods. The term reflected the idea that the person had to sit or hold a pose for the duration of the exposure. Now, as photography technology has evolved and exposure times have become shorter, the term "model" or "subject" has become more commonly used, reflecting a wider range of poses and activities beyond simply sitting.