Helvécia – Eine Schweizer Kolonialgeschichte in Brasilien (Schweizer Geschichten 2023, von Dom Smaz) - Swiss Press Award

Dom Smaz

Photographer, Lausanne, 1983

DOM SMAZ is a Swiss-Brazilian photographer who is based in Lausanne (Switzerland), although he often works in Brazil. He won six Swiss Press Awards and for some ten years now has regularly contributed to both the national and international press, including The Times, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Die Zeit, Le Temps, Neue Zürcher Zeitung and Tages Anzeiger. His photographs often deal with themes of colonial heritage, social differences and marginalization. In 2022, his first book Helvécia. A Swiss Colonial History in Brazil was published by Lars Müller Publishers, followed by a monographic exhibition at the Musée d Ethnographie de Genève (MEG), attended by over 13,000 visitors. In 2023, his book was one of three shortlisted for the prestigious English Kraszna-Krausz Book Awards. Then Smaz was rewarded again by the Swiss Press Photo for his work about Helvécia, winning 2nd place in the Swiss Stories category. Since 2019, Smaz is a member of the French photographic agency Hans Lucas.