© Kourtney Roy, The Tourist — © Kourtney Roy, *The Tourist*

Your work has a very distinct color palette and it really shines in The Tourist. With that in mind, what draws you to these colors over and over again?

I suppose I have a heightened sensitivity to color. I wouldn’t say it’s any sort of special capability; I am just very drawn to bright colors and their effects on one’s perception. I have never studied the influence of colors on the psyche, so my reactions are quite instinctual and spontaneous. The world is one giant color TV set. The idea of photographing it in black and white is personally beyond me.

Your work often has a filmic quality and you seem to create characters in your work. In The Tourist, was there any specific inspiration for your characters?

Yes, I was definitely looking at a wide range of films. Some examples of some influences are: the startling and unsettling behaviour of Mabel in John Cassavetes’ A Woman Under the Influence, the colour and design of Tim Burton’s Edward Scissorhands and the wide angles and claustrophobic compositions of Night and the City by Jules Dassin. I watch a large amount of films. It’s a bit overwhelming at times.

In this series, you seem to be poking fun at the extravagance and often glamorized aspects of the vacation experience. What is it about the vacation experience that you find so contradictory?

Do you remember when growing up, and while on vacation with the family, they would always take pictures of everyone in front of monuments or nice places? Everyone is always smiling and looking nice. Never are there any photos of anyone pissed off, pouting, drunk as hell, hung over or generally looking unsavory. With The Tourist, I wanted to photograph the small cracks that haunt our futile attempts at perfect escapes with the ideal self. I love the seedy underbelly that inhabits all our dreams of beauty and elegance.

Describe your creative process in one word.

Obsessive.