Alexandre Haefeli

Born in 1992, Alexandre Haefeli received a Bachelor of Photography from the ECAL/University of Art and Design Lausanne. He took part of publications like ECAL Photography (Hatje Cantz) or Choli Cholie (RVB Books) and had the opportunity to present his diploma work, The Com- pany of Men, in magazines such as Etapes, GUP, iGNANT, Wallpaper*and ID France. The series was also exhibited in France and Switzerland in Les Rencontres d’Arles, Les Boutographies, Palais-Galerie, etc. Alexandre Haefeli worked for several magazines and newspaper such as Libération, NEON or Citizen K. He received the Swiss photo Award 2016, the Elinchrom prize 2015, and has been part of the Prize Selection of the Photoforum PasquArt. In 2016, he also won an artist residency in Genoa (IT) where he continued his personal work.

In The Company of Men, Alexandre Haefeli takes interest in the representation of the male body and its relation to eroticism. Playing with the spectator’s amorous and voyeuristic gaze, his photographs intend to leave reality to approach the romantic ideal of a lost paradise.

The Company of Men explores the multiple facets of the representation of eroticism and nudity of the male, often only superficially presented and highly codified. Draped in a fantasy of innocence and consumption of purity with an all pervading background of nature that encourages one to leave behind the triviality of daily life, the repeated appearance of this fetish figure of the male body becomes the source of carnal sensations. The body, eroticized and carnal in its evocation of desire, offers itself up to the spectator’s amorous and voyeuristic gaze.

Progressing from image to image, a sense of intimacy and sensuality evolves between these portrayed bodies and echoes the homoeroticism closely associated with the iconic representations of the male figure. Torn between romanticism and open sexuality, between suggestion and revelation, the spectator is invited to look, to imagine and to desire.