Kourtney Roy by Kourtney Roy for Numero #140 February 2013

Born in Canada, Kourtney studied at the Emily Carr Fine Arts Institute. Kourtney wanted to become a painter, but after having taken a photography course, she realised that it was much easier to take a photo of something than to try and paint it. As it was difficult to find models, she began self-portraits at university, before pursuing fashion and art photography. Her work is influenced by many artists such as Jeff Wall, Stephen Shore, Francis Bacon and even Hitchcock. She lives and works in Paris. Her work is based on the search for the sublime and the extraordinary in ordinary environments. She is particularly attracted to the suburbs which are according to her, transitory places where people have the daily potential to live several realities. She has been influenced by Freud’s «Worrying strangeness », a concept which reveals that the strangest for us is often the most familiar. Domestic places transform into an area where the bizarre expresses itself. The atmosphere of places becomes the reflection of a psychological state.