ABOARD chronicles

A visual journey which witnesses the fascinating anonymity of passengers and crew members living on the temporary small, brilliant cities on the sea that are the cruise ships.

ABOARD chronicles take us on a visual journey to witness the fascinating anonymity of this cosmopolitan society floating the seas. Passengers and crew members live on the ships for short or long limited periods: “Traveling across the sea, we are in perpetual motion. Within the pulse of the decks, of the corridors, of the brilliant salons, and of the play of water in pools, everyone loses is own story for finding another one”. These stories come to life in black and white images that tell a surprisingly favourable environment for reflection.

The rhythm on the ship is fascinating: every cycle is carefully marked. One, two weeks for passengers, about 6 months for crews. At every cycle there will be the same people, doing the same things in the same spaces. I thought it was destabilising. On the ship everyone becomes part of the huge mechanism that cycles and renews itself continuously.

After some years my first idea has changed. The cruise ship - a small surface arranged on several decks that balances on the seas - is the densest multi-ethnic container that exists. I observe strangers playing perpetual rules, founding their private spaces in this shared container, playing, loving, laughing, working in this timeless floating place.

The sparkling ship seduces passengers, so the crews is almost invisible. But everything works, exists and seduces because of the crew. They are the mechanism, the pulsating core of the cities on the sea. So the ship, the enormous beast who stole people’s identities, now becomes the perfect stage for telling the perpetual stories.

Each year, European cruise ships transport more than 100,000 passengers to every port in the world. A cruise hosts an average of 6,000 people, including crew members in a space about 400 meters in length by 70 meters in height. In this place that magically floats on the waters, people become a single entity without any connection with their identity or reality.