Featured Image by Teige Zeller (Aimee, Karen, Teige and Allegra)

“Once you have tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been and there you long to return.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci 

I am currently in the middle of a photojournalism project that is focused on flight attendants. Not only does this require that I take photos and interview flight attendants on the actual flights, but it also means that I get to capture the things that passengers don’t ever see.

Have you ever flown before and just wondered what in the world (literally) is inside your flight attendant’s mind? Or what exactly do their jobs entail?

Well, stay tuned with my blog and you’ll soon find out! But here’s a little origin, behind the scenes and sneak peak of what I’ve been up to all semester:

The whole idea for this project probably stemmed from one of the coolest photo journalism projects I have ever come across; Humans of New York.

If you have never heard of Humans of New York, you are seriously missing out and you should definitely check it out!

The project first began in 2010 with the entrepreneur, Brandon Stanton. “The initial goal was to photograph 10,000 New Yorkers on the street, and create an exhaustive catalogue of the city’s inhabitants.” and now it’s blasted off into New York Times best sellers and a pretty inspirational blog!

If you want to hear more on Stanton’s story, check out his interview on National Public Radio.

As a basketball player, I find myself flying quite a bit. To go along with that, I also find myself wondering about the flight attendants quite a bit. One day I was observing a flight attendant with hundreds of questions running through my head;

Where is the coolest place you’ve traveled to?

What made you want to become a flight attendant?

What’s the best part about this job?

What strange experiences have you had with passengers?

And the list goes on and on…

But I remember sitting there and telling myself, “How cool would it be to take photos of these flight attendants and interview them almost in the way that Humans of New York does?!”

So I tucked the project in the back of my mind and planned to start on it one day.

The problem with one day is that, as a college student, unless that one day involves a homework assignment, that one day gets put off pretty often (precisely why this blog didn’t start any sooner than a few months ago . . . Oops!). So I took the first opportunity I had to turn this idea of mine into a homework assignment!

And that has lead me to meeting some incredible people, having some of the most amazing converstions and hearing some of the craziest, saddest or most hilarious stories I have ever heard! More than that though, it has become so much more than just an interview or a few snap shot opportunities.

It has become, being a part of a family.

I can tell you, the experience I’ve had in approaching flight attendants and asking if they’d be willing to be a part of my project has been interesting. I have recieved a variety of reaction; from complete agreement, to, “I don’t like photos”, or even a flat out no.

The really interesting part I discovered, honestly (and I promise I’m not being bias just because Southwest has always been my favorite airline) is that the friendliest flight attendants, in general, were from Southwest Airlines. Never once did they tell me no . . .

And yes, even when the flight was just an hour long, they would oblige. (No, I’m not “salty” at all.)

That is, like I said, in general of course, and I have met some wonderful flight attendants on Delta, Alaska and Jet Suite Airlines who have gone over and beyond my expectation!

On one basketball trip, I had asked each of the flight attendants, as we were boarding this particular Southwest flight, if they would be willing to participate. It must have been towards the end of the basketball season, because I was so exhausted that I failed to keep my eyes open long enough for them to come by my seat and have a little interview with me. I apologized on my way out, explaining that I just couldn’t keep my eyes open and I knew I had missed out on my only opportunity to interview that crew.

“Oh well,” I thought. “can’t get ’em all”

Little did I know what would happen later. When I slipped off to go to the bathroom while we waited for our luggage, one of the flight attendants from the flight walked up to an assistant coach and gave away her phone number telling my coach to let me know, I can call her if I still needed her.

So I organized a phone interview with this flight attendant by the name of Debe and she told me to contact her if I needed any more help. When I asked if she knew any flight attendant that would have an overnighter in Reno and would be willing to work with me, she went digging.

“Aimee is there tonight. Here is her contact info…” she told me through text message. So I called Aimee and set up a meeting time.

“Just treat me like a fly on the wall.” I told her.

“I’m not sure that’s possible with this crew.” she responded with a laugh. “You’ll just get sucked in to whatever we’re doing.”

Aimee, Allegra and Karen

These three women were so much fun! When I met up with them at the Grand Sierra Resort (where they were staying for the night) I discovered that they actually had no idea what they had signed up for. Of course, I explained the whole purpose of my project to them and they were gracious enough to go through with the interview and photographs.

They were hilarious!

The real funny thing is that Allegra and Karen had only met once before and it was their first time meeting Aimee, but you would think that they had known each other their whole lives.

It’s just as they say, flight attendants are each other’s family away from family.

And they definitely made me feel a part of that family.

After the interview we walked over to the open lounge to talk over a few drinks. We discussed just about everything under the sun; relationships, God, the recent United incident and more flight attendant insights. Eventually they mentioned bedtime as they had to be in the lobby at 6:15 in the morning.

After a quick bathroom break in the fancy GSR restroom and a selfie to document the night, they agreed to letting me take photos of their morning. So we said goodnight with a big group hug and parted ways until the dawning light.

That morning I met them dressed in their Southwest uniform in all its glory. They grabbed some Starbucks coffee and patiently waited outside for the airport shuttle, all the while, chatting away with each other and the two other pilots who joined them.

I was able to jump on the shuttle as well and send them off with a fair well and safe travel wishes. Their next stop: Oakland and I hope Reno, again, soon!

Now every time an airplane flies over my head I’ll look up and think of those flight attendants who, in just one night and one very early morning, became more to me than merely three faces in the sky.

Many thanks to Debe, Aimee, Allegra, Karen and all the flight attendants that have made this project I’m working on possible!

Until we meet again!

Thanks so much for reading! If you like this post, follow me on Twitter and Instagram! And don’t forget to keep an eye out for my project Faces in the Sky – where you can find all the photos from this story and more!