From the artist:

Cruise is a story about coming of age. An overnight ferry ride from Riga to Stockholm turns into a metaphor for the transitional space between being a teenager and becoming an adult. Youth is a fleeting phenomenon that is both painful and beautiful, just like the contrast between the trashy interior of the ferry and the beauty of the sea. Trips on the ferry evoke a sort of nostalgia for the present that will soon be past—the sea surrounding the party is magnificent, but it is also a vast nothingness, ready to just swallow us up.

Connecting Eastern and Western Europe, the ferry is popular among young people. Tickets are cheap and it's a good way to get away from their parents' and let themselves go. The ferry provides all kinds of entertainment — karaoke, an evening show with a flamboyant dance performance, gambling halls, a lottery, and a disco hall. The entertainment is sort of cliché and sometimes absurd but its very banality mirrors the awkwardness of what it means to be very young and living in a state of both personal and societal transition.

The book was designed by HOMI - Lea Michel and Christian Hofer. The first edition of Cruise, published by Milda Books, was supported by Arctic Paper, funded through a crowdfunding campaign, and we are immensely thankful to everyone who supported it!

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Ieva Raudsepa (b.1992 in Latvia) received an MFA from the California Institute of Arts (USA) in Los Angeles in 2019. In her work she uses mainly photography, video and text, focusing on the liminal state between East and West, youth and growing up. Has received a BA in Philosophy from the University of Latvia, graduated from the ISSP School and taken part in various ISSP masterclasses. The Cruise was shown at Riga Photomonth 2016, while the book dummy was shortlisted for the Unseen Dummy Award 2016 in Amsterdam. In 2018 her work was also part of Post-Soviet Visions: image and identity in the new Eastern Europe at the Calvert 22 Foundation in London and has been published in i-D, YET, The Guardian, It’s Nice That, Aint-Bad, Wallpaper, and Latvian Photography Yearbook.

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Photos courtesy of Ieva Raudsepa and Milda Books

When I first was introduced to the book Cruise by artist Ieva Raudsepa I wasn’t sure what type of book I will encounter. When I think of a Cruise or more specifically photographic works about Cruise’s I think of middle aged (usually), old folks who are enjoying their life, lots of summer shots, cocktails, pools etc. As someone who never took a Cruise I am sure my perception of what this experience is, is tainted by visuals I encountered over the years. So I can say that I was very surprised once I got the book and took a better look at it. This book has a darker, more muted tone to it. If I think of a Cruise I feel it has a high energy to it and somehow in this work everything feels, slow, calm and in some ways even lonely.

Ieva documents the overnight ferry ride from Riga to Stockholm, a ride connecting Eastern and Western Europe where many young adults travel, for cheap, to escape, enjoy and be – teens. In a beautiful combination of portraits and sea landscapes, she captures what she says is “a metaphor for the transitional space between being a teenager and becoming an adult”. Using the ferry as a small microcosmos environment, she examines what it is like to be a teen/ young adult and what it means to go through this delicate transition of becoming an adult, leaving your youthful ignorance behind and stepping into society and it’s hard reality and responsibilities. Just like how photography tried to stop time, to capture this moment and this moment only, this ferry is a small stop it time where they are all young and therefor will always stay that in our minds.

I think what I love most about the work is that the interactions, the people and the event is all – banal, average, common yet just what we all are in real life. We often see projects that capture youth and teens in a romantic, over the top, fashion forward projects. For me, as someone who was so average so common and so like everyone else, I could never relate to these images that show teens as larger than life people. In her book, Ieva captures them in small yet familiar situations that are warm and common that we can probably all relate to. When you are young, it is not about what or where you are – it’s who you are with which usually makes the situation what it is. It’s not if the dance floor had a disco ball or not, it was the facts that you were holding your friends back singing the song together, it was that one person doing a hand stand randomly, the girl crying in the bathroom, or even the fights. These interactions are all in the book and they make a beautiful story of what life is. There is an awkwardness to the images, a self-aware group of people, all trying to enjoy a few hours away from their homes, families, schools or even themselves.

The book has a feeling that as you go and flip through, you are going through time itself. You start your journey when the sun sets and finish it when the sun comes back up. You experience the night with them, and you will leave the ferry as well once it’s docks. You will never see them again – they will all scatter to their regular lives, and all we share together is these few hours of cheesy décor, loud music, maybe some questionable actions and dancing. This book is a collection of images, that when standing alone might not be able to give the full experience. Inside the book pages we are able to start seeing and smelling what this environment looks and feels like – we are invited in to be a member of this group and enjoy the night together.

I think it is important that the artist herself is and was one of them, she boarded the ferry with them, and her friends and was a part of all these interactions. It’s a self-portrait just as much as it is a documentary commentary of what coming of age looks and feels like.

I am happy I am actually reviewing this book during a pandemic lock-down. It feels almost, appropriate, to take a step back and remember these types of interactions, what they feel like and why we miss them so much. I know many young teens might be missing out of these types of events and connections, so it gives it all a new appreciation to their importance to our development as adults.

Please consider grabbing a copy of this book in the link below – especially if you need some escapism while at home and you need the feeling of the open air ocean.

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Dec 7 Ieva Raudsepa

Ieva Raudsepa

Cruise

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