From May 25 to September 10, 2022
Polka galerie

Yves Marchand et Romain Meffre

Theaters - Épilogue
Proctor’s Theater, Troy, NY 2012 © Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre, Courtesy Polka Galerie.

Polka Gallery is pleased to present the epilogue of Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre's Theatersseries, a long-term project started fifteen years ago. 

 

In 2005, while the photographers were laying the groundwork for the body of work that they would come to be known for  The Ruins of Detroit, published by Steidl in 2010, Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre discovered the interior of an abandoned American movie theater for the first time.For fifteen years their common photographic practice and their passion for secret and lost spacescontinues to lead them through the vast halls of urban ruins across the world. During this time the duo crisscrossed the United States in search of these American movie theaters, the great relics and temples of Hollywoods golden age. They have visited hundreds of these unique architectural spaces over the years with one goal in mind: to draw up an archive, a typology of these strange vestiges of a forgotten Hollywood era; of a time when people prepared their outings to the movies just as though they were going to the opera. 

 

Some theaters have lost their luster, abandoned and dilapidated, dimply lit by a scarce few slits ofdaylight. Others are entirely plunged into darkness, buried in dust and sinking into oblivion. Over the course of their explorations the French duo has discovered some theaters that have been converted into giant storage units, supermarkets or department stores, or others yet that have been completely transformed into gyms or even chapels... Marchand and Meffre capture every smalldetail, venturing into each dark corner that is hidden from public view. They leave nothing to chance, their exploratory mission requiring extensive research and preliminary authorizations.

 

To capture these great and triumphant monuments of the American canon, with hints of Italian Baroque and Art Deco influence, they use a 4x5 inch large format camera. A precise and physical ordeal. The framing is meticulously prepared, during which, above all, nothing must be touched or moved. The photographers commit themselves to leave the found scene untouched. Sometimes, when the monumental halls are exceptionally dark, they resort to an overly long exposure time, during which they scan and prowl the space, illuminating its details with handheld flashlights  adance with light reminiscent of  Karl Hugo Schmölzs technique deployed during the inter-war years in the darkened architectural mavericks of the Ruhr. 

 

After fifteen years of global wanderings, the duo has reached the concluding point of this long chapter in their careers, published by Prestel in December 2021. This epilogue is the last part of this collection, presented in the form of multiple chapters at Polka Galerie since 2012, structured around a selection of previously unseen and unpublished works; here is the final curtain and last cut of an extraordinary adventure. 

Proctor’s Theater, Troy, NY 2012 © Yves Marchand & Romain Meffre, Courtesy Polka Galerie.