Francois Prost

In Love Hotel, French photographer François Prost (born 1980) paints a vernacular portrait of Japan far from the usual clichés, composed of ordinary roadsides, faded signs and varied architectural styles. The book compiles several hundred photographs of love hotel exteriors, shot in 2023 during a road trip between Tokyo and Shikoku Island. Created to offer a space for couples to conduct their amorous activities in privacy, far removed from family considerations, the establishments have become emblematic of Japanese popular culture. They are kitschy by design, appealing to the erotic pull of fantasy. Love Hotel spotlights hotels designed to resemble castles, cruise ships, cakes and faraway cities. Through the photographer’s deft eye, these flamboyant buildings figure as prisms through which Japan’s diverse landscapes—from its dizzying megalopolises to its orderly agricultural countryside—emerge into view.

In 2019, French photographer François Prost (born 1980) road tripped across the American South. Instead of visiting national parks or exploring major cities, he sought out strip clubs in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and California, snapping photographs of their exteriors in the stark light of day. Comprising 200 images taken at a medium distance, Gentlemen’s Club highlights the austere geometry of American roadside architecture. Tucked away in strip malls or standing brazenly alone before an on-ramp to an interstate, the strip clubs are embedded within the country’s infrastructure across urban, suburban and rural zones. Previously, Prost had photographed nightclub facades across France and found that many of the venues drew their stylistic references from postwar American pop culture. So, the photographer deemed it natural to turn to the United States for the next installment of his long-form project.

For the first installment of his international “visual inventory” series, French photographer François Prost (born 1980) turned his lens on his home country, capturing over 200 nightclub facades. His images effectively defamiliarize the clubs: neon and other sulfurous attributes of nocturnal ambiance are replaced by the exposing light of day. They become, then, quite neutral buildings in peri-urban or rural zones, in the middle of industrial areas or sugar beet fields. Like Cinderella returning to reality, these places of celebration, idealized by many teenagers, become void. Not without humor and with a hint of nostalgia, the series pays tribute to the sometimes-overdecorated designs and visual codes claimed by nightlife spaces. Prost’s project won the 2016 Fidal Youth Photography Award and has been exhibited and published internationally. Handsomely produced, the book dons a leatherette-like cover with tip-in and ribbon, and includes pullout poster maps.

Over the course of ten days in 2023, French photographer François Prost (born 1980) rode his bicycle across highways and dirt roads in the regions of Abidjan, Grand Bassam and Yamoussoukro. He had a mission: to photograph as many nightclub facades in the daylight as he could find. Following his “visual inventories” of nightlife spaces in France and America, Club Ivoire presents, across several hundred images, a unique tour of the Ivorian coast, underscoring its graphic sensibilities and cultural aspirations. Many of the clubs assume the form of concrete cubes, perhaps painted in an eye-popping red or yellow; others feature sharp edges and oblique angles. Some are named after famed sites in New York or Europe, such as Times Square or Mont Blanc; others take their names from digital platforms, such as TikTok or YouTube.