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Helvécia - A Swiss Colonial History in Brazil (Swiss Stories 2023, by Dom Smaz) - Swiss Press Award

Wingles holding a berimbao, the traditional instrument of capoeira 2015
Dom Smaz
Wingles holding a berimbao, the traditional instrument of capoeira 2015
2nd place
Photo / Swiss Stories
2023

Helvécia - A Swiss Colonial History in Brazil

Dom Smaz

Helvécia is a former colony - named Leopoldina - founded by Swiss and Germans in the northeast of Brazil in 1818. This colony became one of the largest producers and exporters of coffee in Brazil, with the support of the Swiss government and the work of thousands of people reduced to slavery, until its abolition in 1888.

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Helvécia - A Swiss Colonial History in Brazil

L'Illustrée

2nd place
Photo / Swiss Stories
2023

Dom Smaz

Helvécia is a former colony - named Leopoldina - founded by Swiss and Germans in the northeast of Brazil in 1818. This colony became one of the largest producers and exporters of coffee in Brazil, with the support of the Swiss government and the work of thousands of people reduced to slavery, until its abolition in 1888.

Author
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.

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