Kourtney Roy: From the In-Between Places
June 27th, 2020
Beautiful, yet with an underlying sense of something sinister, the work of award winning photographer Kourtney Roy draws you into its surreal and cinematic universe. Public Offerings Ltd. caught up with the artist to talk location, aesthetics and playing an uncanny character separate from her perceived self.
POL: First up, we’ve read you initially wanted to be a painter, how did you end up using photography as your medium?
KR: It was actually by accident. I was doing my first year at art school when I took a photography course as an elective. Around the same time we had to apply for the second year program if we wanted to do media studies or design and I thought, “Hell why not?” and I put in an application for the photo program. I did the interview and I had almost zero photos to show, just a bunch of mediocre paintings and other cheesy first year work. Two weeks later I got a letter of acceptance and my fate was decided. I think what drew me to photography was its immediacy and its indexical nature. I found photography’s direct link with reality magical and fascinating.
POL: Your images are very cinematic in nature, and you make film work along with your stills photography, how do you find film and photography complement each other as a creative?
KR: I find them to be very different mediums to work with. While both employ the means of mechanical reproduction as their “medium”, this shared foundation diverges drastically upon closer inspection.
Ontologically speaking, I feel that film is based in a sense of time and immediate presence, it is inherently narrative based. You need to have a bigger grasp of your intentions and logic when making a film, or you are going to run into continuity and communication issues that will confuse your audience.
Photography is also imbued with its own complexities. To name just a few that fascinate me: its play on presence and absence, narrative ambiguity through the isolation of a singular moment in time, and the ability for a photograph to take on an iconic and symbolic status beyond what is literally represented.
So I am not so sure that I would describe my work in both fields as mutually complementary, but more as filmmaking has become an extension and further evolution in my work beyond photography. Although it seems like a natural next step, it is really a whole new world when working with moving images.
POL: You act as the model in much of your work, would you describe your art as self-portraits or are they rather something more like character studies?
KR: I would say they are more like “me in the role as”, so perhaps it’s more leaning towards “character studies”. When I look at my photos during or after they are taken I tend to identify the subject in the third person “her”, so in a sense I become the “other”, something separate from my perceived self.
POL: In terms of composition, reminiscent of Hitchock and Lynch, there feels to be something sinister or menacing below the ordinary surface of your images, what draws you to the dark side in your imagery?
KR: I have always been attracted to the uncanny and unsettling side of images. I suppose it comes from my own sense of wonder of the world around me. I have always felt that underneath the surface of “reality” lies another, possibly more disturbing reality.
Depending on the time of day, your mental state, where you are, the vibrations given off by other people and places etc, the world can suddenly become strange to you. Have you ever woken up in the night and thought there was someone standing by your bed? Then upon closer, more lucid inspection you realise it was just your bathrobe hanging off a hook.
I am fascinated with the mutability of the world and our own ability to manipulate it as well. Our knowledge of something is never fixed and the meaning of a place is created through our own projection of significance on to it. Thus, the world becomes sinister and menacing through its reflection of our own projections.
“Our knowledge of something is never fixed and the meaning of a place is created through our own projection of significance on to it.”
POL: Your work is very clean in it’s aesthetic, which suggests a lot or planning and pre-production. How does a normal shoot come together? Is it very planed in advance or is there room for improvisation on the day?
KR: A project starts months, sometimes even years in advance. It means letting ideas and concepts slowly germinate and evolve. Once I have a more concrete idea of what I want to do, I begin to organise the logistical side of the project. This entails choosing the place/places where I want to photograph, finding a good hair and makeup team, a local assistant, preparing the different “characters” I will be embodying, their clothing, details. It’s actually a really interesting process to watch your own project evolve and grow over time.
POL: Talking about choosing places, all of your locations seem both real and yet imaginary spaces, how do you find and decide upon locations for your shoots?
KR: I am often drawn to “in-between” places. Sites that we often pass by but don’t dwell on visually: the side parking lot of a store, the abandoned hotel, the rest area on the side of the road, the junkyard full of old rusty cars, the tire pump at a gas station.
Seemingly contradictory, I am also attracted to more iconic and stereotypical places: Sunset Boulevard, Venice Beach, The Biltmore hotel Miami, route 66 etc. But I always try to photograph to the left or right of the iconic imagery. I want to add another reading of a place through diverting our attention onto often ignored details.
Another major element is colour. I am instinctively drawn to strong colours and that definitely plays a role in choosing a location and composing an image.
POL: What’s coming up next for you?
KR: More films coming soon! And a new book release and show/ projection in the fall of a new, never seen project.
“Have you ever woken up in the night and thought there was someone standing by your bed? Then upon closer, more lucid inspection you realise it was just your bathrobe hanging off a hook. ”
About Kourtney Roy
Kourtney Roy (b.1981) was born in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, Canada. She holds a degree in media studies specialising in photography from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design in Vancouver, Canada.
Roy is currently based in Paris, France, where she has been exhibiting her work nationally and internationally for over 10 years at such events and venues as Le Bal, Paris, the Musée Elyséé, Lausanne, The Head On Photo Festival in Sydney and the Moscow International Photo Biennale.
She has been the recipient of numerous awards and grants, including the Prix Picto (2007), Emily Award (2012), Carte Blanche PMU (2013), The Prix Elysée Nomination (2014) and The Canadian Council for the Arts artist grant (2015). Several books have been published on her work, including Ils pensent déjà que je suis folle (Editions Filigranes, 2014), Northern Noir (Editions La Pionnière, 2016), and California (Editions Louis Vuitton, 2016).