Cruise on the "Independence of the Sea", Royal Caribbean group (location for filming - 2011)

 

The cruise ship Independence of the Seas belongs to the American group Royal Caribbean. It can accommodate 4370 passengers and 1360 crew members. It weighs 154407 tons and measures 339 meters on 15 levels. (Le Havre Port Area, April 2011).

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It was during a scouting trip for a shoot for the advertising agency where I worked as artistic director that I made this series between Southampton & Le Havre. This stay coincided with the princely wedding between Kate & Williams, which was widely celebrated on board due to the overwhelming majority of British passengers.

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After my sentence was reduced after 3 days, I remembered the comments made by Molière to Géronte in the Fourberies de Scapin: "But what the hell was he going to do in this galley?" I survived those 4320 minutes, locked in a microcosm for British lower-middle class as stifling as Prisoner #6's village and which looks more like a vast floating mall than the paradise described in the cruise passengers' brochures.

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And yet, it must be assumed that this mode of mass tourism is suitable for many, since no fewer than 300 ships are constantly sailing the world's seas, some of which can accommodate up to 5000 passengers. In 2015 this concerned about 22 million tourists, of whom 1/3 were Europeans.