Idea: Flight Attendants

I like the quote Paul mentioned on the first day of class about when you know if you're a "photographer" or not. He said you are a photographer the day you decide you don't want to be one anymore.


I decided this summer I want to be a flight attendant. So I must be a photographer.


A flight attendant's ( historically stewards/stewardesses or air hosts/hostesses) main focus is the safety of the passengers on board the plane. Customer service is also an integral part of the job. It's appealing to me to have a job where I have to potential to take control in emergency situations. Wikipedia actually has a good list of notable flight attendants and specific situations where they have helped save people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_attendant).  Then there's the completely selfish side of the job, where you get to travel to exotic places and fly for close to nothing on days off and only work a small amount of  hours a week all while getting paid well. 


Quotes:
"Our lives are shaped by space at the same time that we, in turn, shape space" 
-Drew Whitelegg from his book Working the Skies: The Fast-Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant (only slightly dramatic)


"The small square suitcases we pulled through airports were packed for overnights in Cairo or Paris or San Francisco or Las Vegas. Rather than promotions or upward mobility, we had the lure of the whole wide world." 
-Ann Hood from the article "Behind the Scences With a Flight Attendant" from travelandleisure.com (http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/behind-the-scenes-with-a-flight-attendant/1)


The book, Working the Skies: The Fast-Paced, Disorienting World of the Flight Attendant by Drew Whitelegg sounds like a great source for learning the truth about the lifestyle of a flight attendant.
Whitelegg interviews over 60 flight attendants to gather his in-depth accounts what the life of a flight attendant is really like. He addresses everything from the potential danger, to the jetlag, to the rude passengers. The author manages to make this an amusing but informative read. He does tend to over dramatize at points, which is the only real downfall of the book. 
(http://www.amazon.com/Working-Skies-Fast-Paced-Disorienting-Attendant/dp/0814794084/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1281545706&sr=1-8)


The idea of being a flight attendant is something I can't seem to stop thinking about, but it doesn't necessarily mean I want to make photographs dealing directly with airline imagery. Visually, the exotic travel destinations and even the uniforms, make for interesting subjects. Conceptually I'm more interested in the idea of an independent woman that never stays in one place, and the idea of looking put together while feeling truly the opposite (like when dealing with problem passengers). In the past I've done a lot of work about being alone, as well as investigating female identities, both of which could tie in conceptually.

This photo is from a series called Flight Attendants by Brian Finke. I'm sure I will do an artist entry on this in the near future. It can be seen here: http://www.egodesign.ca/en/article.php?article_id=335&page=1