Biography:
Acacia Johnson is an artist and photographer from Alaska. Drawn to remote places and otherworldly landscapes, her work has focused on the environment, conservation, and the connections between people and place. After receiving a Fulbright grant to...
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Skills:Translator, Digital Printing, Photo Assisting, Film Scanning, Adobe InDesign, Book Layout/Design, Photo Editing, Black & White Printing, Web Design, Video Editing
A float plane, taken out of the water for the winter, withstands a blizzard at Lake Hood Seaplane Base in Anchorage, Alaska. The world's busiest seaplane base, Lake Hood is home to over 1,000 aircraft that use the facilities year-round, with an average of 200 flights per day. UA
Dolena Fox, 25, flies over the Knik Glacier Valley near Palmer, Alaska. Originally from Kipnuk, a small village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Fox is the only female Yup'ik commercial pilot from her region.
"As a young kid I believed that only white people could be successful," she says. "All my teachers in school were white. Occasionally, I would see Native men who were local pilots, but 90% of them were white people. It messed with my mind a lot."
"I knew that I wanted to fly in Bethel," she says. "I wanted to be a part of the lifestyle of transferring the crucial parts of what it takes to live in rural Alaska, like medication, the school supplies, the groceries, and everything in between."
"One thing that pushed me towards pursuing aviation was wanting to see more people be successful in what they're dreaming of," she says. "And even just as a pilot and as a flight instructor – I want to use that for people in Bethel or people in Kipnuk, I don't know, it's just such a big deal. I want to see other people in the Native community also be successful in what they want to pursue."
UA
The Yup'ik village of Mertarvik, Alaska faces the Ninglick River across from the village of Newtok. As Newtok has eroded away due to climate change, the community is graduatlly moving over to Mertarvik. It is one of dozens of remote communities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta that rely on aircraft for essential services. USA
"I became a pilot shortly after I became a mom for the second time," says Kristin Knight Pace, a writer and former long-distance dog musher living in Bettles, Alaska. Because Bettles isn't on the road system, her 1946 Stinson Voyager airplane was the family's only vehicle.
"I think being a mother made me a much better pilot than I would have been before I had kids— the ability to multitask, the ability to plow on through and finish something with, like, kids screaming at you. It gives you something like a superpower."
USA
Pilot Phyllis Tate, 82, in the cockpit of her Cessna 206 in Fairbanks, Alaska. Tate, who has spent much of her life living in rural parts of the state, has used her airplane both for transportation and for business purposes throughout her life. Today, she is the head of the Fairbanks chapter of the Ninety-Nines, an organization of women pilots.
"It's just a feeling," she says, about flying. "It's almost spiritual. There's a lot of satisfaction in the fact that I've achieved this and I can do this, you know, I've done enough that I'm fairly confident that it's going to turn out okay. And then plus the love of the adventure, going someplace. And knowing other women, meeting other women, and the camaraderie. We can have real different personalities, but when it comes to aviation, we're just so in tune." USA
Pilot Henry Hodge unloads food and other supplies for the school in Hooper Bay, Alaska—a village of about 1,300 people on the coast of the Bering Sea. USA
Jamie Klaes, 41, with her Cessna 182 in Anchorage, Alaska. Originally from Bettles, a small village 35 miles above the Arctic Circle, Klaes says that growing up, flying was as normal as driving a car—essential for everyday errands like getting groceries or going to a doctor's appointment. Today, she teaches intensive aviation courses to rural Alaskan youth.
"If pilots can have a job flying in the region they're from, not only will they know the area, the weather, but they're going to be invested in their community and the people that are riding in their airplane," she says. "For me, creating rural pilots doesn't just create jobs, it creates more of a safety network for the aviation community."
USA
The aurora borealis dances above a local's airplane in Bettles, Alaska. Located 35 miles above the Arctic Circle, the small village of Bettles is dependent on aircraft for essential services like groceries, fuel and medical care for its residents. USA
A group of pilots fly in formation down the Knik River Valley near Palmer, Alaska. Social flights like these are a way for newer pilots to learn from more experienced friends. USA
Tosha Cypher, 38, prepares her 1956 Piper Pacer in Hatcher Pass, Alaska. Originally a helicopter pilot, Cypher now flies her Pacer in the backcountry with a growing community of female pilots in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.
"Growing up in Alaska, being around aviation is very much a part of our way of life and community," she says. "It's super supportive." UA
Pilot Arthur Abalama, 31, baits a trap on his trapline near the Kilbuck Mountains. Originally from the village of Quinhagak, Abalama is now the chief pilot for Renfro's Alaskan Adventures, an air charter service in Bethel. USA
Pilot Arthur Abalama, 31, flies his Super Cruiser along his trapline near the Kilbuck mountains. Originally from the village of Quinhagak, Abalama is now the chief pilot for Renfro's Alaskan Adventures, an air charter service in Bethel. USA
Friends Mary Creighton, 35, and Tosha Cypher, 38, stand with Cypher's 1956 Pacer on the frozen surface of Lake George, Alaska. Both women are part of a growing community of younger female pilots flying in the Matanuska-Susistna Valley.
"When I think of aviation in Alaska, I think of family," says Creighton. "I think of family values and teaching skills to the next generation. I don't know how to describe that other than that it's a love for taking care of one's tribe and one's community." USA
Glacier pilot Leighan Falley, 41, waits for fog to lift in Talkeetna, Alaska. Falley, who spent nine years guiding climbers on Denali, flies primarily in the Alaska Range for Talkeetna Air Taxi.
"I think that the modern aviator of today has very little to do with the pilots that flew and crashed a bunch of airplanes in the 60s, 70s, even 80s," she says. "As modern aviators, we are more cognizant of target risk, we have better equipment, better information. We can walk close to that line without going over it. That line that can't be crossed is more like a cliff." UA
"When we're on the ground, we don't really see how peculiarly and elegantly the world fits together," says pilot Mary Creighton, 35. "We just experience it the way we experience it. But from the air, it's so intricate and precise and quirky and strange. It's a different experience. We realize how much we take it for granted."
USA
Dolena Fox, 25, with a Cessna she flies as a flight instructor in Palmer, Alaska. Originally from Kipnuk, a small village in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, Fox is the only female Yup'ik commercial pilot from her region.
"I knew that I wanted to fly in Bethel," she says. "I wanted to be a part of the lifestyle of transferring the crucial parts of what it takes to live in rural Alaska, like medication, the school supplies, the groceries, and everything in between."
"One thing that pushed me towards pursuing aviation was wanting to see more people be successful in what they're dreaming of," she says. "And even just as a pilot and as a flight instructor – I want to use that for people in Bethel or people in Kipnuk, I don't know, it's just such a big deal. I want to see other people in the Native community also be successful in what they want to pursue."
USA
Newtok village agent Jonah Ayuluk chats with pilot Miguel Paez as they unload freight from a Cessna Caravan. Newtok, a small village of about 350 people, is one of many Alaska Native villages that rely on air transport for essential services like groceries. USA
On a Friday night in Bethel, Alaska, pilots from Grant Aviation and Yute Commuter Service gather around a pallet fire outside a pilot house. Most pilots who fly scheduled flights from Bethel work two weeks on, two weeks off, maintaining homes elsewhere. USA