Russell Banks
Floating World
Today’s cruise ships are fascinating laboratories for exploring the amorphous border between our mundane, daily lives and the packaged fantasy world the travel industry sells. For more than four pre-pandemic years, and again in recent months, as the ships have resumed sailing, I’ve worked to capture the tension that I, as both passenger and artist, feel between the dream and the reality. I see it as a metaphor for how many of us live—who we are at this time.
I’m drawn to situations where the veneer of elegance seems a bit thin, and the humor and irony begin to show through. And behind it all is desire, our human need to feel indulged, feel special, and get the selfie.
This project started when I began walking the ships with a camera to make something interesting from my wife’s favorite kind of vacation. I have a degree in photojournalism from the University of Texas at Austin, so it was a natural way to relieve the boredom that had set in. It soon became my most important project, named after the “Ukiyo” of Japan’s Edo period, where the privileged gathered to seek pleasure in indulgence and entertainment.