Joëlle’s style is a jaw-dropping alternate universe with every submission. From beauty portraits to nail-biting horror, Joëlle’s unique creativity and style consistently grab your attention each week. This week marks Joëlle’s 103rd frame!

-Yosef

Name: Joëlle Tschui

Current All-Time Streak: 103

Joined 52Frames: 2021

Your “walk-around” gear right now:

Canon EOS 90D with a Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 and a Canon EF 24-105mm f/4

The place you call home:

Golaten, Switzerland

Your life in 30 words or less

An artist with immense passion for photography, a bass guitar and bodhrán player, nature lover, farm girl, horse rider and pathologist. Impatient with myself but an endlessly patient teacher.

Can you share 2 images, one from your past, and one more recent, that shows your evolution as a photographer?

What has been your favorite style of shooting lately?

It is and probably will be for a long, long time the conceptual portrait and fine art nude. I love coming up with a concept for a model, designing props, assembling clothing and especially making these items myself. I closely collaborate with my parter Tim who has exceptional artistic visions and manual skills. We bounce back and forth ideas and he’ll do what he can to assist my photography, which is something I am endlessly grateful for. I am also lucky to be able to collaborate with makeup artists, which has boosted my creative options enormously. Concept is everything. I usually have very specific images in my head before I even pick up the camera and usually spend a lot of thought on how I want to setup the lighting for that specific look. I love to lead the model towards that artistic vision and I never stop shooting before I feel I got that shot. There aren’t many moments as beautiful as this amazing connection between the model and the photographer when an art shooting gets going. I hope this connection shows up in my photos.

What was the first photo you ever submitted to 52Frames?

How did you find out about 52Frames?

I saw someone mentioning 52Frames on Instagram.

What submission are you most proud of and why?

This shot stands for everything I wish to have in my photography: it’s dramatic, it’s cinematic, it’s got a deliberate colour palette reflecting a certain mood, the lighting is exactly as I wanted it to be and the pose & expression are perfect. I remember the moment I got that shot because my heart leaped and I knew this was it.
This is Vanessa, a professional ballet dancer. She had her hair & makeup done by Alessia, a makeup artist I love to work with and the shooting was assisted by the aforementioned Tim. Beautiful, beautiful teamwork on a shooting that was ideal in every way.

One tip you’d like to share?

Photography may seem overwhelming and I think it is important, especially for people who only just start to explore the options it offers, to try as many different things as possible. I did. A bit of landscapes, wildlife, street photography etc. But I do think, as soon as you become truly passionate about one specific area in the subject, then start to specialise, hold on to that idea and do it again and again and again until it has got your name written all over it. And then do it again. 52Frames is a wonderful opportunity to do exactly that: apply every challenge to your passion and practice that one thing every week a tiny bit more. It will naturally train your skills but also trigger your curiosity and make you want to learn more about your gear, lighting, editing or whatever it may be you need to master your art. You will see progress quickly. And what could be more motivating than that?

Why is 52Frames meaningful to you?

52Frames makes me do things I definitely wouldn’t have done otherwise. And sometimes it is actually the challenges that sound the least appealing to me that will make me do interesting experiments, unusual approaches and trigger out-of-the-box thinking. The community is wonderful. There is so much support here, which makes it easy to also post submissions I am not too proud of. We don’t always have the capacity to go to huge lengths, but that is ok. It’s the same for all of us.

Oh and if all goes well something extraordinary might happen to me next year: a framer might actually travel across the Atlantic ocean, here to Switzerland, to have his or her portrait taken by me (not giving away the framer’s identity here – no pressure!). How amazing is that?! Even if this shooting doesn’t actually happen, for whatever reason, the request alone made my week.

To view Joëlle’s profile on 52Frames, click here: