Abandoned Cinemas of Laos // Micka Perier

THE STORY

In the 90s, a film era ended in Laos as the very last film projections came through a Vientiane cinema called Bouasavanh. Like the other family owned and operated theaters, it couldn’t sustain due to rising costs and stricter censorship efforts by the government.

Now little seems to remain of the once thriving network of movie houses which are consumed by rust and grime and occupied by earth and sunlight creeping in from ceiling holes. Along the city streets the historical buildings wait for curious passerbys to discover their idiosyncrasies.

One such individual was Laos-based French photographer Micka Perier who entered the nearly forgotten spaces with an appetite to “disturb the past, to climb the walls, to wake up the ghosts, to hear the noises, smell the films and feel the moisture.” Managing to capture a palpable lifeforce within the decaying spaces, he gives a new meaning to the term alive in his images.

Micka’s nostalgia-inducing photo series feeds our imaginations through the items and structures left behind giving us glimpses into how it could have been as people gathered in the grand entrances and balconies waiting in anticipation for new screenings filled with laughs and tears, action packed Kung Fu and stories of far off places and intriguing characters.