  We study the photoproduction of the vector mesons $\Phi$ and $J/\Psi$ off a
proton in the kinematical regime of large energies and scattering angles within
the framework of perturbative QCD. Our investigations are based on the hard
scattering approach. This means that the hadrons are replaced by their valence
Fock states and scattering on the partonic level is described by tree graphs in
which the large transferred momentum is redistributed between the valence
partons via the exchange of hard gluons. We find that the unpolarized
photoproduction cross sections are dominated by Compton-scattering-like graphs
in which the photon couples to the proton, whereas vector-meson-dominance-like
graphs, in which the photon fluctuates into the heavy quark-antiquark pair
which then exchanges two gluons with the proton, play a minor role. We give
explicit predictions for unpolarized scattering cross sections and compare them
with experimental data where possible.
