My Alaska Airlines Photoshoot Experience In A Wheelchair

My sister and I got to be part of the Alaska Airlines 2016 Brand Photography and Video Shoot. Can't wait to see how the pic will be used in promotional pictures.

Some unexpected things can happen to a person and some of those unexpected things can be good. Awhile ago I got this email form a lady named Christina . She had a photoshoot opportunity for me and she worked for MHPV and that she saw my instagram photos, and they liked my charity bracelets. Anyways, they needed a person in a wheelchair for this particular project and the photoshoot project was in Seattle. The photoshoot was advertisement pictures for Alaska Airlines. I thought this was odd email as I’ve never done modeling like things or inquired about such things.

I thought to myself this could turn out to be a good opportunity for me to represent the disabled community, or this could turn out to be an elaborate catfish/scam. I had read online that there was a 1 billion chance that a talent scout would contact a person via social media, that and I had called the airport and Alaska airlines about the photoshoot and they sounded like if I was crazy, but MHPV’s website seemed legit and everything. So, there was a 50/50 chance in my head that everything would turn out right.

Regardless of how I felt, I had given my word that I would be there and I intended to keep my word despite some doubts. The night before I was kind of freaking out. I felt like Alice going down that rabbit hole, not knowing what to expect, Christina and Maggie, the director/ founder of MHPV , tried to keep me calm through emails, (bless them.)

On Wednesday March, 23 2016, with apprehension, I dressed nice and with a family friend and my sister I went to Seatac airport. I guess I had that 1 in a billion chance and luck at my side that day because to my surprise the photoshoot was real. Again, I felt like I was in a twilight zone or something. I had visited the Seatac airport a few times before to travel, but now I was here for a photoshoot, life sure had an odd way of surprising a person. We had arrived a bit early, but they were nice and fed us bagels. There was quite a bunch of people working behind the scenes, they all had jobs to do for the photoshoot. In wardrobe I met Christina, to my relief she didn’t turn out to be a catfish. I ended up having to change my outfit and having some great makeup on (thanks Christina,) but I felt very sophisticated. There were trying to give a high end executive look for my ‘character’, and somehow my my sis got involved. We were pretending to travel somewhere and checking in with an Alaska airline attendant, It was storytelling through photographs. It took a few tries to get the photos right. And now looking at the end results I’m glad I was given this opportunity to represent the disabled community. I commend the people who contributed to this idea to use an actual disabled person for the photoshoot instead of using a normal person to sit in a wheelchair or something to that effect. Usually the disabled community doesn’t really like it when a normal person poses as a disabled person for the media and such. I’m sure I speak on behalf of the disabled community when I say it’s kind of a relief that someone gets it.

I know it’s only promotional pics for an airline and I was only a supporting character, but one of the main reasons I agreed to do the photoshoot was because while growing up,I did not see models/actresses or type of characters who were disabled,.it wasn’t until recent years that I’ve been seeing disabled models and actresses get a little more publicity, and even in today’s times, it’s still difficult for disabled actresses and models to go mainstream/or to have an audition/gig in their line of work or any work for that matter, but I’m digressing.. I really like how MHPV and Alaska airlines tried to show diversity of different people and show that that disabled people can move forward in the world, be successful, contribute, and most importantly be happy. Hopefully the photo will ‘inspire’ someone in the disabled community or anybody really, (I know cliché.) And maybe open society’s eyes a little bit as well because there is some stigma with having a disability, even in this modern age.

Thank you, Christina, Maggie, and most importantly Alaska airlines. I will never forget this little adventure. More photos can be found here: http://mhpv.net/alaska-airlines

More info: mhpv.net