CNN
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Some individuals journey the world searching for journey, whereas others search out pure wonders, cultural landmarks or culinary experiences. However French photographer François Prost was searching for one thing altogether totally different throughout his latest highway journey throughout America: strip golf equipment.
From Miami to Los Angeles, Prost’s newest e-book “Gents’s Membership” charts his route throughout the US by way of almost 150 strip golf equipment with names like Pleasures, Temptations and Cookies N’ Cream. There isn’t a single nude lady to be seen, nevertheless, as Prost’s digital camera was solely educated on the buildings themselves — and particularly their often-colorful facades.
Over the course of 5 weeks in 2019 he traversed over 6,000 miles, with the ensuing images capturing every part from the pastel hues of Florida’s Membership Pink Pussycat to venues hiding in plain sight within the nation’s extra non secular states.
“I’d divide these venues into two varieties: One may be very built-in into the general public panorama, and one is a little more hidden and dodgy,” Prost mentioned, chatting with CNN on a video name and e mail.
The primary sort, he added, may very well be present in “very American” settings, akin to “round amusement parks and quick meals and malls.” The latter venues, nevertheless, would generally look indistinguishable from any retailer in a strip mall. Prost mentioned he discovered many such institutions alongside the Bible Belt, a socially conservative area within the nation’s south. He was particularly eager to discover the realm as a result of obvious distinction between the prevalence of strip golf equipment and what he describes in his e-book as “conservatism and excessive puritanism.”
Prost insisted that he had little curiosity within the interiors or companies of the strip golf equipment, which he all the time visited through the day. As a substitute, he hoped to be taught extra about American tradition by creating goal, documentary-style images of institutions sitting on the intersection of intercourse, gender and commerce. Documenting altering attitudes towards intercourse by the lens of structure, he added that the collection was primarily of a panorama images undertaking.
“The prism of this theme of strip membership facades grew to become a approach of finding out and attempting to grasp the nation,” he wrote in “Gents’s Membership,” images from which is able to function in an exhibition in Tokyo in March.
”(‘Gents’s Membership’ is) an goal panorama of dominant opinions and gender and the sexualization of the female picture.”
The genesis of Prost’s undertaking dates again to his 2018 collection, “After Social gathering,” which centered on the flamboyant facades of French nightclubs. He mentioned that folks incessantly commented that the buildings’ exteriors appeared as if they’d been ripped straight out of American cities, sparking the concept that he ought to go to the US and prolong the undertaking.
As he meticulously deliberate his journey, he was struck not solely by the sheer quantity of strip golf equipment in America however that — not like In Europe — they typically demanded to be seen. Sizzling pink partitions, gigantic nude silhouettes and even candy-cane-striped storefronts made no secret of the sort of leisure supplied inside.
“A superb instance can be Las Vegas, the place strip golf equipment are all over the place and their indicators blink as a lot as a quick meals (restaurant) or on line casino signal,” Prost mentioned.
Miami’s golf equipment have been typically painted in vivid, Wes Anderson-esque hues. Different images present brightly lined venues contrasting with their sparse desert environment.
If the institutions have been open through the day, Prost would enter and ask for permission to take images so as “to not look suspicious… and clarify what my intentions have been,” he mentioned. The interiors hardly ever lived as much as the tantalizing guarantees plastered throughout the indicators outdoors, however the photographer met a number of characters throughout his five-week journey, from detached bouncers to managers who have been thrilled concerning the undertaking.
“More often than not, individuals have been OK — 99% of them would say sure to a facade image,” he mentioned, including they sometimes wouldn’t thoughts his presence, so long as he didn’t take images of patrons or dancers.
“Some would suppose that it was a bit unusual, some can be actually enthusiastic about it and provides me their enterprise card to ship me the image when it was carried out,” he mentioned.
Prost mentioned his largest shock, nevertheless, was how “normalized” strip golf equipment gave the impression to be in on a regular basis life. As he displays in his e-book, “The connection that Individuals appear to have with strip golf equipment is kind of totally different to what you see in Europe. Going to a strip membership appears to be much more normalized … You go as a pair, or amongst mates at night time to have enjoyable.”
He was struck, as an illustration, by the truth that so many Las Vegas strip golf equipment doubled as eating places — with many boasting completely satisfied hour offers, buffets and particular reductions for truck drivers or development employees.
“I observed a couple of strip golf equipment that will promote being a strip membership and steakhouse, so you would eat a giant piece of meat (whereas) watching strippers. That can also be one thing that appears very American to me,” he mentioned, including: “I heard from some individuals I met in Portland there are even strip golf equipment (that supply) vegan meals.”
The facades are affected by jokes like “My intercourse life is just like the Sahara, 2 palms, no dates” and pun-based names like Booby Entice and Bottoms Up. Prost’s documentarian method heightens the indicators’ surreal comedy. However it additionally doubles as a impartial lens by which viewers could make up their very own minds concerning the objectification of ladies.
By honing in on the faceless dancing our bodies of feminine silhouettes and the quintessential “ladies ladies ladies” indicators, “Gentleman’s Membership” explores the commodification of ladies who’re, in actuality, fully absent in Prost’s works (an remark mirrored within the e-book’s title, which is a phrase that crops up quite a few occasions on indicators all through his images). The strip golf equipment he visited market girls as issues to be consumed, from the various food-themed names to an commercial studying, “1,000’s of lovely ladies & three ugly ones.”
For his subsequent undertaking, Prost plans to go to Japan to doc the nation’s love resorts, which occupy an identical function as strip golf equipment in some components of the US: open secrets and techniques in a conservative society. However the photographer believes the American institutions he visited say one thing distinctive concerning the nation — one thing that’s much less about sexuality and extra concerning the American dream.
What his undertaking has proven him is, he mentioned, this: “So long as you’re profitable by way of enterprise, (it doesn’t matter) in case your exercise offers with intercourse.”
“Gents’s Membership” can be exhibited at Agnes b. Galerie Boutique in Tokyo, Japan, between March 17 and April 15, 2023. The e-book, printed by Fisheye Editions, is obtainable now.
