Las Vegas

These 3 photographs are out of a story happening in Las Vegas.

An ongoing project dealing with the illusion and disillusion of the liberal system.

Las Vegas – in English : “the fertile plains” – has imposed her lights and her share of the dream in the very heart of the Mojave desert. The one who is known as Sin City is the primary city in the State of Nevada; her economic activity makes her an attractive employer with a population that has been growing for decades. Las Vegas is one of the leading tourist destinations in the United States. Which travel guide would omit to praise her euphoria and invite one to taste the most extraordinary experiences in her lap? In the midst of a financial crisis, Las Vegas keeps on seducing. Sparkling, ultra-liberal, traversed by the famous Strip brimming with monumental casino-hotels, this high place of the mafia and prostitution intermingles extremes and excesses. Here, gambling and sex avail themselves in countless parties and addictions, whilst fates are decided in a game of poker or the spin of the roulette.

It is in the heart of this utmost symbol of entertainment made in USA that I have carried out my visual work since Christmas 2013. I am trying to cut through the varnish of illusions and artificial joys to give way to aimless wanderings where carnivorous casinos spit out lonely individuals as so many silent shatterings of a harmful liberal system.

Christian Lutz

June 2014