Franois Prost: Gentlemens Club

Discover a new kind of American landscape through Prosts road trip photos documenting strip club facades across the South

In 2019, French photographer Franois Prost (born 1980) road tripped across the American South. Instead of visiting national parks or exploring major cities, he sought out strip clubs in Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arizona, Nevada and California, snapping photographs of their exteriors in the stark light of day. Comprising 200 images taken at a medium distance, Gentlemens Club highlights the austere geometry of American roadside architecture. Tucked away in strip malls or standing brazenly alone before an on-ramp to an interstate, the strip clubs are embedded within the countrys infrastructure across urban, suburban and rural zones. Previously, Prost had photographed nightclub facades across France and found that many of the venues drew their stylistic references from postwar American pop culture. So, the photographer deemed it natural to turn to the United States for the next instalment of his long-form project.