CNN
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Some travel around the world in search of adventure, others seeking natural wonders, cultural landmarks, or culinary experiences. But French photographer François Prost was looking for something completely different at strip clubs, a recent road trip across the United States.
From Miami to Los Angeles, Prost's latest book, “Gentlemen's Club,” charts his routes across the United States through 150 strip clubs with names such as joy, seduction, and cookie n' cream. However, there is not one naked woman, as Prost cameras were trained only on the building itself, specifically the façades of color.
Over the course of five weeks in 2019, he crossed over 6,000 miles, resulting in everything captured, from the pastel hues of Florida's club pink pussycat to the venue hidden by the obvious vision of the country's more religious state.
“We divide these venues into two types: one is very integrated into the public landscape, one is a little more hidden and dangerous,” Prost told CNN via video call and email.
The first type he added is in “very American” settings, such as “around amusement parks and fast food and malls.” However, the latter venue may be indistinguishable from strip mall stores. Prost said he found many such facilities along the Biblical Belt, a socially conservative region of the country's southern part of the country. He was particularly keen to explore the region due to the obvious contrast between strip club prevalence and what he describes in his book as “conservatism and extreme puritanism.”
Prost claimed he had little interest in the interior and service of strip clubs he visited throughout the day. Instead, he wanted to learn more about American culture by creating objective, documentary-style photographs of facilities sitting at the intersection of gender, gender and commercial. Recording changes in attitudes towards sex through the lens of architecture, he added that the series is primarily from a landscape photography project.
“The prism of this theme on the strip club facade has become a way to study and try to understand the country,” he writes in “The Gentlemen's Club.”
(“Gentlemen's Club”) is an objective panorama of dominant opinions and gender and gender imagery. ”
The origins of the Prost project date back to the 2018 series “After Party,” which focuses on the ornate façades of French nightclubs. He said people frequently commented that the exterior of the building looked as if it had been torn straight from American cities, sparking the idea that he should visit the US and extend the project.
When he carefully planned his trip, he demanded that not only be a huge amount of American strip clubs, but unlike Europe, they often see. Hot pink walls, huge nude silhouettes, and even the candy cane striped storefronts didn't keep a secret the kind of entertainment offered inside.
“A good example is Las Vegas, where strip clubs are everywhere and their signs flash just as flashes as fast food (restaurants) and casino signs,” Prost said.
Miami clubs were often painted in vibrant Wes Anderson-esque shades. Other photos show the vividly covered venue in contrast to the sparse desert environment.
If the facility was open during the day, Prost asked for permission to “look suspiciously… and to explain what my intentions were. The interior rarely led to an appetizing promise painted on the outside signs, but during the five-week trip, the photographer met many characters, from indifferent security guards to managers excited by the project.
“Most of the time, people were fine. 99% of them would say yes to the photo on the façade,” he said.
“Some people find it a little weird, some people are really excited about it, others give them their business cards to send us pictures when it's finished,” he said.
But Prost said his biggest surprise was how “normalized” strip clubs look like in everyday life. As he reflects in his book, “The relationships that Americans think they have with strip clubs are completely different from what you see in Europe. Going to strip clubs seems much more normalized… you go as a couple or between friends at night.”
For example, he was hit by the fact that so many Las Vegas strip clubs doubled their restaurants.
“I noticed some strip clubs that advertise that it's a strip club and a steakhouse so I can eat the big meat that sees the strippers. It's also something that looks very American to me,” he said.
The façade is littered with jokes like “My sex life is like Sahara, two palms, no dates,” and pun-based names like booby traps and bottoms-ups. Prost's documentary approach enhances the surreal comedy of the sign. But it also doubles as a neutral lens that allows viewers to supplement their minds about objectification of women.
By honing into a faceless dance body of a female silhouette and a typical “girl girl” sign, “Gentleman's Girl Club” explores the commercialization of women that are not actually entirely present in Prost's work (a phrase that has been engraved many times throughout his photographs). The strip clubs he visited women in the market visited, ranging from many food-themed names to “1,000 beautiful girls and three ugly things,” as consumed and consumed.
For his next project, Prost will visit Japan to document a love hotel in the country, which occupy a similar role as strip clubs in some regions of the United States. However, the photographer believes that the American facility he visited says something unique about the country.
What his project showed him was, “As long as you're successful in terms of business, if your activities deal with sex (that's not an issue), he said.
The “Gentlemen's Club” will be exhibited at Agnes b. Galerie Boutique is located in Tokyo, Japan from March 17th to April 15th, 2023. Books published by Fisheye Editions are now available.