“Love hotels are a unique and deeply ingrained part of Japanese culture,” says photographer François Prost. “These venues have a very ‘talkative’ quality visually—they’re expressive in their design, reflecting aspects of local culture, values, and even fantasies.”
Throughout a visit to Japan in 2023, when Prost was exhibiting an earlier collection of works known as Gents’s Membership at a gallery in Tokyo, he launched into a highway journey from the capital metropolis to Shikoku Island within the southeast of the nation. With the gallery’s urging, he undertook a brand new challenge whereas visiting, documenting the facades of affection lodges—additionally generally known as “boutique” or “fashion” lodges—that supply rooms at low-cost charges for transient stays.
Prost, who is predicated in Lyon, France, approaches his topics as options of the panorama that characterize a particular vernacular and spotlight quirky or taboo aspects of native tradition. Gentleman’s Membership, for instance, documented American strip golf equipment alongside a southerly route from Miami to Los Angeles in 2019. He has additionally sought out Ivorian, French, and Spanish nightclubs in collection like After Social gathering and discoteca.
“I choose specific types of venues in each country—those with distinct, often kitschy or roadside architecture—and photograph them across the region with a consistent framing style,” Prost says. “I’m drawn to the aesthetic of these places, and how their facades reveal something about the people who inhabit or frequent them.”
His newest collection, Love Resort, captures the unmissably colourful designs of roadside lodging, starting from ships and castles to flowers and a pink whale. “The venues aim to evoke a sense of romance, escape, and fantasy, yet they also need to feel safe and inviting—not tacky or sordid,” Prost says. “It’s why some of these places have an almost ‘Disney-like’ aesthetic, playful yet carefully curated.” Estimates of what number of love lodges dot Japan vary from 10,000 to 40,000.
Prost has launched a brand new e-book for the collection on Kickstarter that highlights the creativity and occasional hilarity of those notorious locations. “I hope viewers are struck by the incredible attention to detail and devotion to design that defines these spaces in Japan,” Prost says.
You’ll be able to help the e-book on Kickstarter till January 10, and keep up to date by following Prost on Instagram. Discover all of his initiatives, together with extra books, on his web site.
