Created by the SCAM (Société Civile des Auteurs Multimédia) the Scam Grand Prize for portfolio work, the “Roger Pic Scam Award” in recognition of its creator Roger Pic, offers 4500€ and an exhibition at the Scam headquarters. The prize honors an author’s portfolio of 15 pictures.

In 2011, the Roger Pic Scam Award jury, led by Thierry Ledoux, President of the Scam Still Pictures commission, presented the award to Agence VU’ photographer Christian Lutz for his portfolio “Tropical Gift”, a behind-the-scenes look at the oil and gas business in Nigeria.

Tropical Gift is part of Christian Lutz’s ongoing study of power, a theme he began working on with the series Protokoll, a photographic investigation into the heart of Swiss politics for which he won the Best Photography Prize of Switzerland and the Festival FotoLeggendo Award in Rome. As one of the winners of the Vevey International Grand Prize 2009-2010, Lutz was able to complete this Nigerian story. “From 2009 through 2010, Christian Lutz took an inside look at power, exploring the dominators and the dominated. He took pictures of the daily lives of foreign businessmen in the Nigerian capital Abuja, their transactions with the members of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, and explored the lives of the local populations along the Niger delta where the oil is located. Disturbing pictures, on the frontier of snapshots and reality, where the photographer observed one of the main points of contention between the developed and underdeveloped world.

Born in Geneva, Switzerland in 1973, Christian Lutz studied photography at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts et de l’Image, “Le75” in Brussels. Photographer since 1996, he has focused his camera on the Balkans, Brazil, West Africa, the United States, and Switzerland.

The jury, including Patrick de Saint-Exupéry, Jean-Claude Coutausse, Jean-Xavier de Lestrade, Jean-Marie Drot, Peter Knapp and Esther Woerdehoff also gave special notice to the portfolios "Chasseurs de l’invisible" by Jean-Michel Fickinger and Danny Leriche and the "Enfants sorciers de Kinshasa" by Gwenn Dubourthoumieu.

Bernard Perrine
Bernard.Perrine1@orange.fr

Exhibition

Christian Lutz
Scam
5 Avenue Velasquez
75008 Paris
Opening November 16, 2011.
Free entry, Monday through Friday, from 9:30am to 5:30pm.

Book

Tropical Gift
The Business of Oil and Gas in Nigeria
Lars Müller Publishers