“You Can Never Leave”. Published 2026. 15 images. Shot on 35mm film.
At a moment when experiences everywhere are being increasingly commodified, this series examines cruise ships as closed systems where curated images, performances, and spaces make the world beyond them unnecessary.
I photographed six cruises over twelve months and came to see the ships less as transportation and more as sealed environments. They felt self-contained, detached from wherever they were sailing.
At sea, you can’t leave. But the point is that you’re not meant to want to. The ocean is always there, yet often only as backdrop: reflected in windows, projected on screens, or simulated altogether. Surfing is done on a machine. Tropical plants line an artificial garden. Movement loops back to the starting point.
Many of the photographs have no guests at all, isolating the architecture in the intervals between use, when each space is reset and prepared to repeat the experience. The setting anticipates desire and contains it. Even in port, the ship offers little reason to step beyond it.