A Lebanese photographer who worked as a flight attendant for nearly ten years has documented the behind-the-scenes life of air crew.
Lucien Samaha’s love affair with aircraft started when he was a young boy. His father and uncles worked for an airline and he spent the first ten years of his life flying first class to spend time with his family.
Samaha, who always carried a camera with him, has recently exhibited a selection of the 600 plus images he took during his time flying with TWA.
Team work: Crew members enjoy a mid-flight shoulder rub in 1982
Boarding pass: Pilots and flight attendants sit on the steps of the plane in Frankfurt in 1983
Light hearted: A stewardess jokes around on board a flight in 1985
‘Flight Attendants epitomized international glamor and adventure to me. Growing up, I often dreamed of becoming one,’ he said.
High life: Samaha with his father in 1958, who also worked on airlines
As his 18th birthday approached Samaha, who had studied photography in high school, realized the life of luxury he had experienced for free on board planes would end.
‘I wouldn’t be able to jaunt around the world at will, for free – something I had been used to all my life,’ he said.
‘My only solution was to follow my childhood dream and become a flight attendant.’
On his 20th birthday Samaha was hired by TWA and began studying at the Breech Training Academy. He took photographs nearly the entire time, according to Slate.
‘I was shooting everything during that time, from fashion photography in Milan to photographing on layovers … street photography around the world,’ he said.
It was a glamorous period for flying. Samaha learned how to carve chateaubriand and how to serve caviar in first class as he worked on flights from Chicago, Tel Aviv, Rome and Paris.
Samaha, a documentary photographer who was part of the launch team for Kodak’s first digital camera and explained that he often used small cameras to help his subjects feel more relaxed.
Sky’s the limit: The moon shines over this passenger jet as it waits at JFK in New York in 1982
Driving seat: A first officer sits in the cockpit of a TWA aircraft in 1978
round crew: Drivers in Cairo wait to meet the plane in 1982
‘People become relaxed with a small point-and-shoot camera, and that’s my aesthetic. I like intimacy … the smaller and quirkier the camera, the better—and I feel l can take great pictures with it,’ he said.
A collection of photos from that time, entitled The Flight Attendant Years: 1978-1986, is being shown at the Lombard Freid Gallery in New York. Many of Samaha’s former colleagues on the airlines have been invited to the gallery to view the images.
His work can also be viewed at Luciensamaha.net.
Turbo: Crew pose in one of the engines in 1978
Training camp: New recruits at the Breech Academy in 1978.
High jinx: Air crew celebrate Easter in Las Vegas in 1982
An attendant rides the shuttle bus at Cairo airport in 1983
source::::mailonline .com uk
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