Love Hotels-over the top topics remains in Japan, where couples grasp for a little privacy ~ are the stars of the French photographer François Prost The latest photo book, Dear hotel. During the road from Tokyo to Shikoku in 2023, cheers discovered these quirky, colorful buildings again and again and could not look away. Prost was known for catching nightlife and a strange architecture around the world, and felt at home and documented it. We caught up with talking about the trip that triggered everything, the stories behind the facades, and which love hotels today say about intimacy and hospitality in Japan.
What did she first bring into the aesthetics of the Japan's love hotels during their road trip?
“The idea for this project was triggered during a trip to Japan last year, where I was invited to present my Gentlemen's Club series at an exhibition. The gallery suggested that I developed a new project in Japan, and of course it felt that it was concentrating on the documentation of the facades of the love hotels. This was organically followed by my earlier work, which followed the FARES OF IN ARAL WORK Researched.
In many ways, my approach to photographing love hotels reflects my other projects that I consider as a form of landscape photography. I select certain types of event locations in every country – which with different, often kitschy or street architecture – and photograph them in the region with a consistent frame style. This enables me to create a portrait of a country through the lens of its dealing architecture. I am attracted to the aesthetics of these places and, like their facades, show something about the people who live in or visit them frequently. “
“Love hotels are over 10,000 and 40,000 in Japan's ubiquitous fittings across the country. They are supposed to address young people, and as such have many courageous, conspicuous architecture. The venues aim to remember a feeling of romance, escape, and imagination also have to feel safe and inviting, no sound that struck me over several places was the recurring use of Boat replicas that were frequently docked in front of the hotel performed with the name 'Water Gate'. Structures very opposite. Interestingly, this phenomenon for Japanese culture is something very special. And of course there has been a shift in the past ten years. Today, many contemporary love hotels are inspired by the 'Balinese' aesthetics with bamboo, natural materials and tropical motifs. It is a design language that resonates in younger generations. While these venues are still mainly used for romantic encounters, they have also become spots for young people to gather, play and celebrate karaoke and to blur the boundaries between love hotels and regular entertainment sites. “
What challenges did you use to take pictures of these love hotels, especially if you take your discrete nature into account?
“In terms of the pictures, I never met with difficulty taking them, I cannot ask for permission because I take a lot of pictures, and this would take too long, so I am a bit discrete myself. Most of the time there was no one who asked me something like places, as places, from their places, very calmly from outside. Hook cars, but they would see me again … Do not let people disturb, people leave them their thing.
Have you entered one of the hotel or concentrated exclusively on your facades?
“I Didn't Enter in the Hotels, as My Project Concerns ONLY the Exteriors. I Found Documentation of the Inside on the Internet, which looks interests, but i Only Drove My Project on the Outside. I Think The Facade Gives A Lot of Understanding of a Culture of a Culture Belong to the Public Space, they sumhow what people are fine to see. show. “
What do you hope that the audience will take this collection of pictures away?
“I hope the spectators are impressed by the incredible attention to detail and the dedication to the design that defines these rooms in Japan. It is a unique aspect of Japanese culture – the way even the most common places on the roadside are made with such care and creativity. This project shows a side of Japan that often remains unnoticed.”
This book is available through Book antennas and Amazon.
Would you like to learn more? An exhibition of the project will take place from March 20 to May 18, 2025 The Agnès b. Day galleryPl. Jean-Michel Basquiat, 75013 Paris, France.