Acquaintance chronicles the search and rescue mission of the vessel Humanity 1 in the Mediterranean Sea. On October 3, 2022, the ship set sail from the port of Palermo, embarking on its journey alongside the mission’s crew and volunteers. Between October 22 and 24, three rescue operations were carried out, bringing a total of 180 people to safety from three different boats.

It took twenty-one requests for a place of safety before a disembarkation port was finally granted, yet not everyone was permitted to leave the ship. Forty-five individuals, deemed to be in good health, were left stranded in limbo on the deck of the vessel, which lay moored at the port of Catania – a recurring pattern that has been played out in the Mediterranean Sea for at least fifteen years.

The result of the forty days at sea is an analysis of how the social sphere of every human being adapts according to physical spaces and the other individuals they interact with. The resulting photographic reportage thus tells the story of a border, of the human beings who cross it, and of the relationships born between them. While the narrative is localized within a single event – much like the countless others that continuously unfold in the Mediterranean – the gaze shifts toward the people experiencing it firsthand: confined within a restricted space and surrounded by the darkness of a vast, unpredictable sea.