After Party sees the beauty of Parisian club spaces in broad daylight

Have you ever revisited the night before in the cold, hard light of day? For some, it might be better not to – the sticky floors of XOYO or a warehouse spaces in the afternoon might not have quite same quality as that Friday night when you heard someone declare that the Bussey Building was the most ‘beautiful space in London’.

For others with a more refined eye, there’s a delicate beauty and power in club spaces that bring people together. Paris based designer Francois Prost explore this concept in his new book, After Party, a collection of French discotheques photographed in broad daylight deisgned by him and Jefferson Paganel.

These nightclubs, still open to the public, are shown in a new light: neon lights, glitter and other suggestive attributes give way to a more banal reality. They reveal themselves as relatively neutral suburban or rural buildings, in industrial areas or surrounded by beetroot fields.

Speaking about the project, Prost says, “Like Cinderella returning to reality, these party places, the theatre of so many teenage fantasies, become empty shells. With a certain humour and a hint of nostalgia, the series also highlights the excessiveness of the decors and visual codes used in these establishments”.

After Party is published by Head Banger Publishing (an editorial branch of Ed Banger, a french music label), and showcases 300 pages of photography made in the four corners of France complete with a fold our road map.

For international readers, Prost will be exhibiting the series at galleries across Paris next month, at the Superette Gallery and Aggnes B Gallery. You can find more details about that on his website, and the book is out now.