The photographer François Prost is currently exhibiting his Love Hotel project at Galerie du Jour, documenting the facades of these hotels in Japan.
How did you meet agnès b., and what is your relationship with her today?
My children went to the school of someone who worked at Galerie du Jour. One day, I went to show him one of my books, without any particular expectations. Agnès liked the photos, and a few years later she asked me to do an exhibition. Let's just say I forced the luck a little.
What was the starting point for your artistic career?
I was a graphic designer and I was working on photographic projects at the same time. Around 2011, I started a series on discotheque facades in France. The trigger came during a bike trip with a friend. Waiting for my buddy one Sunday morning in the deserted parking lot of a nightclub, I was struck by the ambiance of the place - a farm transformed into a discotheque, with party leftovers, tire tracks, cigarette packets... This visual shift made an impression on me. I took a photo, without thinking too much about it. A few months later, when I came across it again, I felt that there was something to dig into.
How did the project evolve from there?
It became a bit of an obsession. I started accumulating these facades on my travels. I built up a collection and published images. That's how the book After Party came about. I then took this idea elsewhere: to the United States with Gentlemen's Club, to Côte d'Ivoire with Club Ivoire, and more recently to Japan with Love Hotel. Each time, the project is enriched by a local, societal and cultural dimension.
Tell us about Love Hotel, currently on show at La Fab.
After discotheques and strip clubs, love hotels in Japan seemed an exciting subject to me, both graphically and culturally. I spent two and a half weeks there in 2023, on an itinerary between Nagoya, Kyoto, Osaka, Okayama, Shikoku and Tokyo. Sometimes I spent five minutes at a site, sometimes half a day to catch the right light.
How do you prepare for a trip like this?
I'm pretty methodical. I prepare a lot in advance. I construct my routes like photographic road-trips, where the journey is almost as important as the shot. I rent a car and join the points I've marked on the map, of which there are almost a hundred in Japan. There's a pleasure in discovering the world from these unexpected angles. Each trip leaves a deep impression on me.
What fascinates you about these roadside architectures?
It's a way of telling the story of an era and a society through its visual objects. These places say something about customs, fantasies and popular culture. My approach is almost documentary, influenced by the work of figures like Bernd and Hilla Becher or Benetton's Colors magazine. There's always a play between the dreamlike and the real, a back-and-forth between the mental image and its confrontation with the terrain. I'm fascinated by what images say without saying, by their ability to condense a collective imagination.
What role has agnès b. played in your career?
She supports me very freely, almost like an informal residency. She follows my projects, encourages me and gives me incredible visibility. Without her, Love Hotel probably wouldn't have seen the light of day in the form it has. That's precious. And it all started with a small gesture: showing someone a book. It just goes to show you have to dare to push open doors. Sometimes it changes everything.
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Love Hotel: a photographic journey through the facades of Japanese love hotels
From March 20 to May 18, 2025
Galerie du Jour,
Place JM Basquiat
Paris 13th arrondissement
