Christian Lutz

18 FEB 2017
SCREENING

INSERT COINS AT LA NUIT DE LA PHOTO / CHAUX-DE-FONDS

LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS, SWITZERLAND

19 NOV 2016
EXHIBITION

INSERT COINS AT LIANZHOU FOTO FESTIVAL

LIANZHOU, CHINA

Opening on November 19th 2016.
More info

12 NOV 2016
BOOK SIGNING

INSERT COINS AT PARIS PHOTO

PARIS, FRANCE

Location 1: André Frère éditions at Paris Photo, Grand Palais, main sector H at 2:30 pm. Read more

Location 2: Galerie Clémentine de la Féronnière (PhotoBook Social Club), from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.

Address: 51, rue saint-Louis-en-l’île, 75004 Paris

08 NOV 2016
EXHIBITION

INSERT COINS IN THE ESPACE IMAGES GALLERY

VEVEY, SWITZERLAND

Opening of the exhibition and concert by Louis Jucker & Emilie Zoé La Ferblanterie, Chaussée de la Guinguette, behind Vevey station at 6:30 pm.

14 SEP 2016
EXHIBITION

NO MAN’S LAND AT FESTIVAL IMAGES VEVEY

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND

Official opening of the exhibition on 14 September at 6.30 pm

Check out opening times at Théâtre Vidy: vidy.ch

More info: images.ch

02 SEP 2016
SCREENING

INSERT COINS AT VISA POUR L’IMAGE

PERPIGNAN, FRANCE

17 MAY 2016
BOOK VERNISSAGE

INSERT COINS IN CAVE 12

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Vernissage du livre and concert de Louis Jucker

At 9:00 pm.

cave12.org

andrefrereditions.com

04 MAY 2016
EXHIBITION

INSERT COINS AT IMAGES SINGULIÈRES FESTIVAL

SÈTE, FRANCE

Opening: Friday, May 6th at 2:30 pm.

04 SEP 2015
EXHIBITION

LA MIA VALLE AT VERZASCA FOTO FESTIVAL

SONOGNO, SWITZERLAND

Opening: September 4th at 6:00 pm.

More: www.verzascafoto.com

03 SEP 2015
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT IN GAF GALLERY

HANNOVER, GERMANY

Views on Africa exhibition.

Opening: September 2nd at 7:00 pm.

08 MAY 2015
SCREENING

LIBELLULES IN MAISON DE QUARTIER DES LIBELLULES

GENÈVE, SWITZERLAND

Date: vendredi 8 mai, 18h

Location: Chateau Bloch 1, 1219 Le Lignon

07 MAY 2015
EXHIBITION

LIBELLULES IN L’HÔTEL DE VILLE DE GENÈVE

GENÈVE, SWITZERLAND

Location: 2 rue de l’Hôtel-De-Ville, salons bleu et jaune.

Opening: Friday, May 7th, at 6:30 pm.

03 MAY 2015
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT AT KOLGA TBILISI PHOTO FESTIVAL

TBILISI, GEORGIA

Location: Z. Tsereteli Museum of Modern Art.

Opening: May 3rd at 6:00 pm.

More: www.kolga.ge

01 MAY 2015
BOOK VERNISSAGE

LIBELLULES IN SALON DU LIVRE ET DE LA PRESSE DE GENÈVE

GENÈVE, SWITZERLAND

Vernissage & signature de la publication Libellules, éditions Héros-Limite, au salon du livre et de la presse de Genève le 1er mai 2015 à 18h, stand P1646.

More info: <www.salondulivre.ch>

www.heros-limite.com

04 APR 2015
EXHIBITION

TRILOGIE AT BOUTOGRAPHIES FESTIVAL

MONTPELLIER, FRANCE

Vernissage samedi 4 avril, 10h

Rencontre publique Faculté de droit de Montpellier mercredi 8 avril, 17h

More info: www.boutographies.com

20 SEP 2014
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT IN THE ART SPACES OF THE MICHAEL HORBACH FOUNDATION

COLOGNE, GERMANY

Opening : September 19th, 7pm

More info: laif.de

19 SEP 2014
EXHIBITION

IN JESUS’ NAME AT ENCONTROS DA IMAGEM FESTIVAL

BRAGA, PORTUGAL

Opening : September 18th

More info: encontrosdaimagem.com

11 SEP 2014
EXHIBITION

PROTOKOLL AT KAUNAS PHOTO FESTIVAL

KAUNAS, LITHUANIA

Opening : September 11th

More info: 2014.kaunasphoto.com

10 SEP 2014
EXHIBITION

IN JESUS’ NAME IN CLUB 44

LA CHAUX-DE-FONDS, SWITZERLAND

Opening : September 10th / 19h

More info: www.club-44.ch

20 MAY 2014
EXHIBITION

POWER AT DOCFIELD

BARCELONA / SPAIN

Opening : May 19th

More info: www.docfieldbarcelona.org

16 MAY 2014
EXHIBITION

IN JESUS' NAME AT EWZSELECTION

ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

Opening: May 15th, 5pm

Artist talk: May 25, 5pm

More info: www.ewzselection.ch

15 MAR 2014
EXHIBITION

IN JESUS' NAME AT INTERNATIONAL BIENNIAL OF PHOTOGRAPHY

LIÈGE, BELGIUM

More info: bip-liege.org

30 JAN 2014
EXHIBITION

IN JESUS' NAME AT ARTGENÈVE

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Location:Palexpo, Geneva, FMAC space.

More info: artgeneve.ch

12 JAN 2014
EXHIBITION

LIVRES DE PHOTOGRAPHES

GENÈVE, SWITZERLAND

Location: Bibliothèque d’Art et d’Archéologie, Genève.

01 JAN 2014
EXHIBITION

LE SACRÉ ET LE PROFANE

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Location: Espace L, Geneva

More info: www.espacel.net

10 SEP 2013
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT IN GALERIE LE BLEU DU CIEL

LYON, FRANCE

Opening: 10.09

More info

01 SEP 2013
EXHIBITION

PROTOKOLL & TROPICAL GIFT AT NOORDERLICHT FESTIVAL

NETHERLANDS

Opening: 31.08.2013

More info: www.noorderlicht.com

31 AUG 2013
SCREENING

IN JESUS' NAME AT FESTIVAL VISA POUR L’IMAGE

PERPIGNAN, FRANCE

Screening & conference

More info: www.visapourlimage.com

18 JUL 2013
EXHIBITION

TRILOGY AT CORTONA ON THE MOVE FESTIVAL

CORTONA, ITALY

05 JUN 2013
EXHIBITION

TRILOGIE IN MUSÉE DE L’ELYSÉE

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND

05 JUN 2013
EXHIBITION

FALSEFAKES IN CENTRE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

05 OCT 2012
EXHIBITION

INSERT COINS AT SINGAPORE INTERNATIONAL FOTOGRAPHY

SINGAPORE

20 SEP 2012
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT AT FOTOGRAFIA - FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE DI ROMA

ROME, ITALY

18 SEP 2012
EXHIBITION

PROTOKOLL AT PHOTOGRAPHES EN ALSACE, GALERIE LA FILATURE

MULHOUSE, FRANCE

03 AUG 2012
EXHIBITION

PROTOKOLL AT FESTIVAL DE LA LUZ 2012

BUENOS AIRES, ARGENTINA

Centro Cultural Recoleta.

01 JUL 2012
EXHIBITION

AUX DÉPENDS DU RÉEL

LE CHÂBLE, SWITZERLAND

Location:

Le Musée de Bagnes
Chemin de l'Eglise, 13
1934 Le Châble

04 MAY 2012
EXHIBITION

HØPE OU COMMENT ARMER SES YEUX

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

Location:Centre de la photographie, 28, rue des Bains.

20 APR 2012
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT AT DARMSTÄDTER TAGE DER FOTOGRAFIE

DARMSTADT, GERMANY

Location: Darmstädter Tage der Fotografie,
Designhaus, Eugen-Bracht-Weg 6,
64287 Darmstadt.

17 MAR 2012
EXHIBITION

STAGING POLITICS IN LA CHAMBRE

STRASBOURG, FRANCE

Location: Parc des expositions, 7 Place Adrien Zeller
67000 Strasbourg.

01 FEB 2011
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT IN HOST GALLERY

UNITED KINGDOM

Location: 1-5 Honduras Street
EC1Y 0TH London.

27 OCT 2010
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT IN GALERIE COALMINE

WINTERTHUR, SWITZERLAND

Location: Volkart House, Turnerstrasse 1
8400 Winterthur.

10 SEP 2010
EXHIBITION

OUTWEST AT SEPTEMBRE DE LA PHOTOGRAPHIE

LYON, FRANCE

Location: Bibliothèque du 1er arrondissement, 7 rue Saint Polycarpe
69001 Lyon.

04 SEP 2010
EXHIBITION

TROPICAL GIFT AT FESTIVAL DES ARTS VISUELS DE VEVEY

VEVEY, SWITZERLAND

Location: Ex EPA Rue d'Italie 56-58, Vevey.

09 OCT 2009
EXHIBITION

PROTOKOLL AT FESTIVAL FOTOLEGGENDO DE ROME

ROME, ITALY

Oficine Fotografiche Associazione Culturale - Via Casale de Merode 17 a 00147 Rome.

PREVIOUS NEWS

SAMBRE HEROS
2023

During his many stays in Maubeuge as artist-in-residence at the Théâtre du Manège (France) in 2022, Christian Lutz has observed the life of the town, its everyday activities and its popular events. The result is a series of photographs with a sometimes mysterious context, which he often combines with facetiousness. Throughout the images, without shying away from the harsh reality of things, Christian Lutz weaves a strange and comical tale.

CITIZENS
2021

In the wake of the financial and refugee crisis, economic and social insecurity, Touting visions of impending doom and gloom, including overpopulation and social decline, they fan fears and peddle purportedly “common sense” solutions and promises that breed exclusion and intolerance. All of Europe is witnessing the political ascent of right-wing populist parties: UKIP in the UK, Dansk Folkeparti (DF) in Denmark, FPÖ in Austria, AfD in Germany, Vox in Spain and SVP in Switzerland, to name just a few.

Photographer Christian Lutz has documented right-wing populist people, movements and hot spots all over Europe. A far cry from the usual polarized coverage in the mass media, Lutz’s multi-layered photographic approach involves noiseless pictorial expressions of deep seated despair in the form of candid portraits of party leaders and followers alike and shots of their rallies, post-industrial landscapes, bars and hangouts.

THE PEARL RIVER
2019

The Pearl River offers a photographic immersion in Macao, high place of gambling and luxury, a spectacular symbol of a megalomaniac and conquering China. This city with a mythical and sulphurous aura has inspired many writers, directors and artists. A former Portuguese possession (from the 16th century to 1999), located at the southern end of China, in the delta of the Pearl River, Macao now enjoys a privileged economic situation thanks to gambling. The beginning of the 2000s marked an important turning point for this urban center : the Chinese authorities decided to open the gambling sector to free competition, while in China itself - on the other side of the border - games of chance remain prohibited. The result of this liberalisation is an outrageous development of casino construction and a financial windfall that has multiplied. About 30 million tourists visit Macau per year. A very large majority of them come from China and Hong Kong, and go there to play. For nearly 15 years, Macao has replaced Las Vegas, in terms of wealth. Its casinos are imagined on the Vegas model and impregnated with references to Europe and its culture. Once upon a time there was America, now it's China ...

DAS GEHEN
2018

February 3rd 2017 : my father was diagnosed with an advanced stage of lung cancer. Ever since then, I've been shouldering him in his struggle and photographing him on a daily basis

Christian Lutz

INSERT COINS
2016

Las Vegas has imposed her lights and her share of the dream in the very heart of the Mojave desert. Sin City is not only the primary city in the State of Nevada but it’s also one of the leading tourist destinations in the United States, as travel guides praise her euphoria and lure visitors to taste the most extraordinary experiences in her lap.
Throughout the decades, the resort city’s lucrative economic activity has also made her an attractive employer with an ever-growing population. Amid financial crises, Las Vegas relentlessly seduces.
Sparkling, ultra-liberal, intersected by the famous Strip and brimming with monumental casino-hotels, this stronghold of the mafia and prostitution combines extremes and excesses. Here, gambling and sex prevail in countless parties and addictions, whilst fates are determined in a game of poker or the spin of a roulette.
It is in the heart of this quintessential, Made in USA, symbol of entertainment that Christian Lutz carries out his visual work between 2011 and 2014.
His keen sense of observation slices through the illusionary varnishes of artificial joys and exposes the aimless wanderings of lonely individuals spewed out by the carnivorous casinos as so many other silent shatters of a harmful liberal system.

LIBELLULES
2015

Libellules is the culmination of a project carried out by Christian Lutz during an artist in residency program granted to him by the BAL – Biennale des Arts Contemporains aux Libellules.

In 2013, the photographer settles into the Libellules apartment complex on the outskirts of Geneva and shoots a series of images that reflect both the intimate and divided nature of sprawling low-income housing unit. The result is a series of images that reflect fleeting poetic impressions of human solitude that seamlessly weave into the majestic natural and industrial backdrop of the compound.

IN JESUS' NAME
2012

From 2003 to 2012 Christian Lutz’s primary focus is to create a trilogy on power.

The political component, Protokoll, was released in 2007 and in 2010 the photographer tackles economic power in Tropical Gift, a study on Nigeria’s oil and gas circles.

Religious power is meant to be his trilogy’s final component and in 2011, Christian Lutz contacts the International Christian Fellowship (ICF), a Zurich-based evangelical church. With the agreement of the Church’s leaders, he photographs the congregation and its followers over the span of a year.

In November 2012, the third volume, In Jesus’ Name, is published. A few days later, a lawyer, hired by the ICF and representing 21 followers, protagonists in the photographs, files a complaint and obtains an immediate ban on the book.

Christian Lutz reacts by revisiting the banned photographs and delivering new images blacked out with thick banners. It is now impossible to recognize the faces. And, as an expression of the prejudice, the text of the complaint filed by the plaintiffs is printed over this obliteration. Lutz draws upon the language of the press confronted to image rights in two ways: Eliminating the individual’s identity by covering up the eyes and printing the court decision on the photographs. Strangely, the images are neither shocking nor sensational, they merely reflect attitudes and slices of life.

From a work banned stems a new, even stronger one. His trilogy has since become a quadrilogy, moving onward to evoke the power of the judiciary.

In the urge to interpret images, one tends to project in them one’s own beliefs and doubts, and soon emerges the certainty to see in them what was feared.

TROPICAL GIFT
2010

During three successive trips to Nigeria, from 2009 to 2010, Christian Lutz documents this relation between dominator and dominated through two different angles. On the one hand, he photographs expatriated businessmen from the capital Abudja in their private life, at work and amid negotiations with Nigerian state employees. On the other hand, he investigates the local pollution in the Niger Delta, wherein lies the oil.

PROTOKOLL
2007

From 2003 to 2006 to develop his photography series named Protokoll, Christian Lutz accompanies a member of the Swiss Federal Council on a number of official occasions throughout the world.

In Protokoll the photographer observes the mise-en-scène of authority within the hierarchies to which the political decision makers and their delegations are subjected.

He isolates the clichés that rule the world and records the unsaid and unobserved with his camera. His images show a reality that differs from the official photographic reports.

The power presented in these strictly codified rituals gives way only briefly through fleeting gestures. Christian Lutz delimits a context in which the activities of the ministers, their deputies, and the personnel that orbits this political cosmos unfold.

The photographs present a concentrated critique that calls into question a deeply ingrained system of representation causing the viewer to alternate between laughter and astonishment.

PREVIOUS

CITIZENS
2021

Edition Patrick Frey
220 pages
100 images
29x20 cm
Language: french and english
ISBN: 978-3-907236-12-3

THE PEARL RIVER
2019

Post-empire in the new Middle Kingdom: what once was America is now China. After his Insert Coins project (2016) about the decline of Las Vegas, Swiss photographer Christian Lutz set off to explore the world’s new gambling capital, Macao, where everything revolves likewise around money, luxury, surfaces. This former Portuguese colony in the Pearl River delta, now one of China’s “special economic zones”, began its meteoric ascent after the turn of the millennium when the Macao government ended the monopoly on gambling and opened up the market to foreign investors. They erected temples to Mammon, monumental marble- and gold-faced casino resorts algorithmically modelled on generic Venetian and Parisian templates, bringing in thirty million—mostly Chinese—tourists a year. Macao’s regulated microclimate of gambling halls, boutiques and bars is packed with the usual businessmen and politicians in ill-fitting suits alongside upwardly mobile Chinese families in sweatpants and flip-flops. Everything here is sanitized, antiseptic, dust-free. And everything refers to simulacra of simulacra. Lutz’s insistent photographic gaze laconically scans the smooth surfaces of this brave new world—in which the first cracks are beginning to show.

Edition Patrick Frey
N. 289
Design : Pablo Lavalley
152 pages
75 color photographs
24x33 cm
ISBN : 978-3-906803-89-0

INSERT COINS
2016

Throughout the decades, the resort city’s lucrative economic activity has also made her an attractive employer with an ever-growing population. Amid financial crises, Las Vegas relentlessly seduces.

Sparkling, ultra-liberal, intersected by the famous Strip and brimming with monumental casino-hotels, this stronghold of the mafia and prostitution combines extremes and excesses. Here, gambling and sex prevail in countless parties and addictions, whilst fates are determined in a game of poker or the spin of a roulette.

It is in the heart of this quintessential, Made in USA, symbol of entertainment that Christian Lutz carries out his visual work between 2011 and 2014.

His keen sense of observation slices through the illusionary varnishes of artificial joys and exposes the aimless wanderings of lonely individuals spewed out by the carnivorous casinos as so many other silent shatters of a harmful liberal system.

Publisher: André Frère Éditions (2016)
96 pages
Size: 19 x 24 cm
ISBN: 979-10-92265-29-3

LIBELLULES
2015

Libellules is the culmination of a project carried out by Christian Lutz during an artist in residency program granted to him by the BAL – Biennale des Arts Contemporains aux Libellules.

Libellules was co-edited with the BAL and produced with the contributions of Michèle Freiburghaus-Lens, Luca Pattaroni and Eva Cousido.

Publisher: Héros-Limite (2015)
68 pages
Size: 21 x 28 cm

MEETINGS
2012

For more than a year the photographer Christian Lutz has been observing Geneva's 'ballet' of international cooperation. Through his eyes, we catch a rare glimpse of the rich diversity of people, meetings and relationships and the myriad of ways they collaborate. Under-secretaries, interns, ambassadors, meteorologists, nutritionists, physicists... Lutz has observed them all. Using Geneva's inherent diversity of roles, cultures and events as a backdrop, Lutz goes beyond protocol to present us with a unique series of images; strange at times, often amusing, but always visually powerful. This book has been published with the support of the Republic and state of Geneva, via the office of the Delegate for international Geneva. It is the result of a mandate to Christian Lutz to capture one international Geneva event a week between July 2011 and December 2012. photographs have then been published on the State of Geneva's website dedicated to international cooperation.

This work presents a selection of images from this collaboration, most of which have never been shown before.

Publisher: Notari (2013)
86 pages
Size: 34 x 24 cm

IN JESUS' NAME
2012

From 2003 to 2012 Christian Lutz’s primary focus is to create a trilogy on power.

The political component, Protokoll, was released in 2007 and in 2010 the photographer tackles economic power in Tropical Gift, a study on Nigeria’s oil and gas circles.

Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers (2012)
96 pages
Size: 30 x 24 cm

TROPICAL GIFT
2010

This photographic essay by Christian Lutz captures the closed world of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. Through his sharp approach the photographer conveys the malaise borne by civil societies that endure the consequences of these highly lucrative financial interests. The result is a bitter statement that tackles the unequal power relations between the dominators and dominated – a dark picture of how the overly abundant mineral resources of Africa are being exploited.  
During three successive trips to Nigeria, from 2009 to 2010, Christian Lutz documents this relation between dominator and dominated through two different angles. On the one hand, he photographs expatriated businessmen from the capital Abudja in their private life, at work and amid negotiations with Nigerian state employees. On the other hand, he investigates the local pollution in the Niger Delta, wherein lies the oil.

Publisher: Lars Mueller Publishers (2010)
96 pages
Size: 30 x 24 cm

PROTOKOLL
2007

From 2003 to 2006 to develop his photography series named Protokoll, Christian Lutz accompanies a member of the Swiss Federal Council on a number of official occasions throughout the world.

In Protokoll the photographer observes the mise-en-scène of authority within the hierarchies to which the political decision makers and their delegations are subjected.

He isolates the clichés that rule the world and records the unsaid and unobserved with his camera. His images show a reality that differs from the official photographic reports.

The photographs present a concentrated critique that calls into question a deeply ingrained system of representation causing the viewer to alternate between laughter and astonishment.

Publisher: Lars Müller Publishers (2007)
92 pages
Size: 24 x 30 cm

KARPATHOS
1998