Stories

Picture taken by Jaskirt of an ape in Gibraltar

The decision to go cruising around the world, but working as a photographer instead of on holiday, wasn't a tough one.

Photography is my biggest passion, I love telling stories and having my work exhibited. I get a real buzz from it and mostly I love meeting new people, talking to them, finding out their story and then trying to represent that in an image.

Inside the ship

Cruise ship experience

I arrived to join my ship, the Sea Princess, on Saturday 10th May 2008 in Southampton. I was awe struck at the size of this floating hotel. A massive 14 floors of the biggest mixed bag of people, activities, lifestyles and luxuries.

The challenges I faced were more with the lifestyle of living on a cruise ship rather then work as an actual photographer. Mostly the passengers were lovely, but there was the odd few that were beyond strange and complicated, especially to photograph.

Picture of fisherman in Italy taken by Jaskirt

So what does a photographer do on a cruise ship? We occasionally dress up as pirates, fishermen and even lumberjacks but mainly we take lots and lots of photographs for holiday goers on board the ship to buy and keep as souvenirs of their holiday.

Stepping out of the comfort zone

When I first joined, my own personal style of photography completely differed to the portraiture we shot on board. I was more used to fine art photography, and although I mostly shoot portraits I hadn’t really done so with such an emphasis on details of where someone’s ear or chin was placed in a picture!

Bar worker Erica from the cruise ship

The studio photography was a bit alien to me at first and I didn’t really like idea of having to construct happiness in a few minutes, but with 2000 passengers on board time is an issue. The best thing I learnt from this was how to have fun with people to make them comfortable and happy in a short amount of time.

Like any job, it had it’s pro’s and con’s. Cleaning and setting up the printers first and last thing every day for 2 weeks every couple of months being the worst!

Greenland

Culture shock

Despite the places I got to see and visit there were times I wanted to go home, there are very ugly parts of living on cruises but the pro’s always made me stay. And I am glad for it too because the friends I made and the incredible places I visited were worth it.

You see the job above deck 4 is just a tiny part of the experience. The memories that will stay with me longer are the ones in the crew bar or friends’ cabins, where I learnt how to dance to salsa from my Argentinean and Mexican friends, hosted a Bhangra party, watched my friends music jamming sessions. And then there were the late nights chatting with friends, listening to music, watching the L Word or How I Met Your Mother.

The cruise ship

I always knew it was a once in a lifetime experience for me, many others make it their life working on cruise ships for years. So I made sure that when I came home I would be utterly exhausted because of the lack of sleep a night and constant running around trying to see as much as possible.

Discovering new places

The ship took me from Europe to New York via Greenland and then Canada and the Caribbean too. I have too many favourite places to name, but mammoth New York, the beautiful waterfalls of Dominica, beaches of Barbados, scooter riding in Ajjacio, sitting in the Blue Lagoon in Iceland and the history of Rome and Pompeii stand out the most.

Picture taken on Barbados beach

Due to the nature of cruising, sometimes I would only have a few hours on land so I decided to photograph as many people at every port I stopped at to experience the different cultures and taste the flavour of the cities.

The whirlwind ended nearly 3 months ago and the toughest part was getting used to the immediate disconnection from those you spend every day with and seeing so many awe inspiring beautiful places every day. I also miss taking my camera with me everywhere and photographing absolutely everything.

Looking back

It was one of the best times of my life and the great thing about making friends from all over the world is that now I can travel without a curfew and have a spot in almost every country to stay at. Yet the greatest lesson I learnt was that no matter where I am in the world and however much I want to see my heart will always be with Birmingham.

To view the 3 projects, 'Uniforms', 'Faces of the World' and 'World Landscapes', I worked on whilst working on the cruise go to: