The magazine of the photo-essay
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Stephen Fry. British actor, writer and film maker
They are in every American city and town - grandiose movie palaces, constructed
during the heyday of the entertainment industry, that now stand abandoned, empty,
decaying, or repurposed. Since 2005, the acclaimed photographic duo Marchand/Meffre
have been traveling across the US to visit these early 20th-century relics. In hundreds of
lushly coloured images, they have captured the rich architectural diversity of the theaters’
exteriors, from neo renaissance to neo-Gothic, art nouveau to Bauhaus, and neo-
Byzantine to Jugendstill. They have also stepped inside to capture the commonalities of a
dying culture: crumbling plaster, rows of broken crushed-velvet seats, peeling paint,
photography by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre
defunct equipment and abandoned concession stands - as well as their transformation into bingo halls, warehouses,
fitness centers, flea markets, parking lots and grocery stores.
Using a large format camera, the photographers’ carefully composed images range from landscape exteriors to starkly
beautiful closeups. Presented here in a gorgeous
oversized format, exquisitely printed with superior inks and spot varnish, this illustrated
eulogy for the American movie palace is certain to become a modern-day classic
Fox Theater, Inglewood, CA
Loew's Palace Theater, Bridgeport, CT
Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, PA
Metropolitan Opera House, Philadelphia, PA
Paramount Theater, Newark, NJ
Proctor's Theater, Newark, NJ
Proctor's Theater, Troy, NY
Robins Theaters, Warren, OH
Spooner Theater, Bronx, NY
State Theater, West Orange, NJ
Movie Theaters by Yves Marchand and Romain Meffre is published by Prestel in
September (ISBN: 9783791387741, £60)