Costa Mediterranea

The moment you set foot onboard a cruise ship, you step into a parallel world. But before you’re allowed to take that step, your picture is taken with some kind of scanner. It’s as if the real ‘you’ has to remain ashore and only your avatar is allowed to board. This heightens the sensation that you’re entering a different realm. Onboard you find yourself in a world inspired by different eras and continents, randomly mixed together. The interior of the cruise ship I was on drew inspiration from the historic palaces of Italy, according to their brochure. To me, it felt more like the mock world of a film set. Once aboard the ship you couldn’t move without being observed by the cruise staff. The ship was just 60% full, resulting in a ratio of two crew for every three passengers. The only place I could escape this scenery was in my 12m2 cabin. This cabin became the setting in which I created my own scenes. I also photographed my bedspread, which was folded into different shape everyday by the room attendant. These images of my cabin combined with pictures of the ship’s interior show the (sur)reality of everyday life on a cruise.