Hoteltopia is a photography project that looks at the architecture and aesthetics of beach resorts in Tunisia. Developed in tandem with my undergraduate thesis, Hoteltopia: Power, Desire, and Exoticism in the Tunisian Resort, the project interrogates how these spaces of leisure are often detached from the social, political, and historical contexts surrounding them.

The project emerged from my interest in how national identity is staged through tourism: the hotel becomes a symbol of postcolonial nation-building in tourism-dependent countries, such as Tunisia, which exist within Europe's "pleasure periphery." These resorts try (and often fail) to create a fantasy of abundance and escape, barely obscuring the complex dynamics of labor and performance. The Tunisia that appears inside these resorts, through costume, cuisine, and entertainment, is rarely reflective of the Tunisia outside.