ABOARD Chronicles takes us on a visual journey into the fascinating anonymity of a cosmopolitan society floating at sea.
The series explores the anonymity of passengers and crew members inhabiting cruise ships — floating cities where people live for limited yet asymmetrical periods of time.
“Travelling across the sea, we are in perpetual motion. Within the succession of decks, in the labyrinth of corridors, in the brilliant salons, and in the play of water in the pools, one loses one’s own story and finds another.”
These stories emerge through black-and-white images that portray an environment unexpectedly open to reflection.
Life on board follows a precise rhythm. Each cycle is clearly marked: one or two weeks for passengers, around six months for crew members. In every cycle, the same actions unfold within the same spaces. At first, this repetition may seem destabilising. On the ship, one becomes both anyone and no one, absorbed into a vast mechanism that continuously renews itself.
With time and observation, this perception shifts. The cruise ship — a compact surface arranged across multiple levels, balanced on the sea — reveals itself as one of the densest multi-ethnic environments in motion. In this floating space, strangers move within perpetual rules, constructing private territories inside a shared enclosure, playing, loving, laughing, and working within a suspended, almost timeless dimension.
The sparkling architecture seduces passengers, rendering the crew nearly invisible. Yet everything functions and exists because of them. They are the mechanism, the beating heart of these cities at sea. The ship, once perceived as an enormous beast devouring identities, becomes the stage upon which perpetual stories unfold.
Each year in Europe, cruise ships transport over 100,000 passengers. On average, a single vessel hosts around 6,000 individuals — passengers and crew — within a structure approximately 400 meters long and less than 70 meters high. In this physical space floating across the waters, individuality compresses into a collective body: everyone and no one, detached from former identities and realities.
About Simona Bonanno
Simona Bonanno is an Italian photographer and visual artist working across photography, art books, design, and communication. Born in Messina, she studied at ESAG Penninghen and Université Paris 8 in Paris, and later graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Italy, where she explored various forms of artistic expression. Her work has been exhibited internationally, including in the United States, France, Germany, and Canada, and she has received major awards such as the Julia Margaret Cameron Award, Amateur Photographer of the Year, the All About Photo Award, the LensCulture Street Photography Award, and the International Women in Photo Association Award. Two of her fine art prints are part of the permanent collection of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Her photographs have been featured by CNN, RTS UN, Resource Magazine, Amateur Photographer, Fotografia Reflex, National Geographic, and Digital Camera Magazine. Now based in Sicily, Bonanno works internationally, with a special focus on Germany and France. [Official Website]
