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The Federal Council photo

17.01.2022

© Stefano Spinelli

Stefano Spinelli. I preface this story on the creation of the 2022 Federal Council photo with the fact that this is my personal experience..

In the year before taking office, the future President of the Confederation entrusts the task to the chosen photographer. Before that, I had already proposed a draft photo to Federal Councillor Cassis in January 2021. In July, I was informed that I had been chosen from among several applicants. However, I have known Ignazio Cassis for a long time. This, together with the merits he saw in my work, probably influenced the decision. It probably works the same way for other federal councillors. Next year it will be Alain Berset.
 
The future president sets the guidelines for the picture. However, it is up to the photographer to develop one or more projects on this basis. The Federal Chancellery takes care of all logistical and material aspects of the realisation. During the discussions with Cassis, I was supported in the realisation by a team from the FDFA's international communications agency "Presence Switzerland". Together with them, the design was refined step by step. This project was tested with extras to verify the result.
 
However, one day after the pilot shoot, we had to stop because of rising contagions and work out a new project - and this shortly before the final shooting. The shoot was a lengthy process that started at the end of July and ended on 21 December when I went to the printers for the final check. Before that I had been to Bern a few times and had several zoom meetings with the team. A lot of time went into thinking, testing hypotheses and problem solving. Thanks to such preliminary work, the margins of error remain minimal.

The time required was a few hours of preparation the day before (including test shots) and two to three hours on the day of the final shoot: the federal councillors were photographed individually (see Making of...). Then there was the post-processing. The final session took place in December, a few days after the election of the President by the Federal Assembly.

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