Photographer Brian Finke spent nearly two years traversing the friendly skies, following the life of flight attendants in the air and on the ground, from Delta and Hawaiian Air, to Hooters Air, Southwest, Air France, British Airways, Air Asia, and dozens more. His images of flight attendants waving, applying makeup and deboarding plans while smiling appear as if they were ripped from an advertisement in a glossy magazine. Here: Tiger Airways, Singapore, 2006. (Photo by Brian Finke/The Washington Post)

Participants of the 79th edition of the annual Christmas swimming “Coupe de Noel” jump into the Lake Geneva, in Geneva, Switzerland, Sunday, December 17, 2017. More than 2000 men and women swam the 120 meters at the traditional Christmas swimming in Geneva where the water temperature was 6 degrees. (Photo by Martial Trezzini/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

This photo taken on November 20, 2022 shows a woman wearing the Chinese transitional dress, known as Hanfu, taking part in a parade in Shenyang in China's northeastern Liaoning province. (Photo by AFP Photo/China Stringer Network)

Children walk amid a mirror installation titled “Sea of Mirrors”, featuring digital images of fish in the ocean during a preview tour the day before the show's public opening at the AquaRio aquarium in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Wednesday, June 14, 2023. (Photo by Silvia Izquierdo/AP Photo)

Jodie Ounsley who plays Fury in the British TV show Gladiators reacts after finishing the Women's Open Category race at the World Coal Carrying Championships in Ossett, West Yorkshire, England, Monday, April 21, 2025. (Photo by Jon Super/AP Photo)

Fighters from Germany take up position before competing in the Medieval Combat World Championship at Malbork Castle, northern Poland, April 30, 2015. Medieval combat is a full contact sport that revives the foot based tournament fighting of medieval Europe. Countries fight in refereed matches where the objective is to get the opposing team to the floor. There are also duels with polearms, swords and shields where the number of hits landed are scored. The fighters, both male and female, wear heavy armours and weapons, mostly replicas of authentic pieces, and fight following the knights code of conduct. According to organizers, 25 nations from 6 continents are taking part in the Championships, which started on April 30 and will go on until May 3. (Photo by Kacper Pempel/Reuters)

In this October 6, 1976 file photo a member of a Thai political faction strikes at the lifeless body of a hanged student outside Thammasat University in Bangkok October 6, 1976. For some Thais, the bloody events of October 6, 1976 are still a nightmare. On that day, heavily armed security forces shot up Bangkok's Thammasat University campus and killed scores of students, while right-wing vigilantes captured would-be escapees, subjecting them to ghoulish lynchings. (Photo by Neal Ulevich/AP Photo)

A tourist poses next to a tiger before officials start moving tigers from Thailand's controversial Tiger Temple, a popular tourist destination which has come under fire in recent years over the welfare of its big cats in Kanchanaburi province, west of Bangkok, Thailand, May 30, 2016. Wildlife authorities raid a Buddhist temple that has more than 100 tigers, taking away three cats and vowing to confiscate scores more in response to global pressure over wildlife trafficking. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)