A Virgin America flight attendant captured life behind the scenes of flying over the course of nine years. She posted the photographs on Facebook and Instagram and tagged them #TheSecretLifeOfVirgins.
Molly Choma has been photographing her colleagues on Virgin America since she joined the company right after graduating from college with an arts degree.
She used the confined spaces and dim lighting to her advantage to capture moments the public normally doesn’t see.
Molly Choma has been capturing the behind-the-scenes lives of her colleagues on Virgin America for nine years
She uses dim lighting and tight accommodations to her advantage to capture images the public doesn’t normally see
Choma posts the photographs on Instagram and Facebook and cleverly tags them #TheSecretLifeOfVirgins
The series of photographs became successful on social media and Choma will be traveling to the 2018 Winter Olympics to photograph the USA bobsled and skeleton teams.
Choma’s mother was also a flight attendant, and she says she inherited her love of photography from her.
‘There was always a camera around my house,’ Choma said to CNN Travel. ‘My mom wasn’t a photographer, but she always had a camera and I always liked to play with it. She would enroll me in little photography classes at rec centers.’
Choma originally didn’t plan to stay at Virgin America and hoped to eventually pursue a career in the arts after the Recession.
Molly Choma has been photographing her colleagues on Virgin America since she joined the company right after graduating from college with an arts degree
Choma’s mother was also a flight attendant, and she says she inherited her love of photography from her
Choma originally didn’t plan to stay at Virgin America and hoped to eventually pursue a career in the arts after the Recession
She says that photographing her colleagues and the subsequent success of the images feels like full circle to her
‘It was a really bad time to graduate with an art degree,’ she said. ‘When I started at Virgin I thought it would be two years, and I didn’t even tell anyone what I was doing, because I felt like I needed to be a ‘true artist’ or something like that. So now it’s just kind of ironic that it’s come a little bit full circle in that regard.’
Virgin America was purchased by Alaska Airlines in March 2017. Choma said the purchase created a sense of urgency for her to continue with her project.
‘When our airline got purchased it just kind of drove it home for me to preserve the culture that we grew up with,’ says Choma.
‘We are like a family, so when they made the announcement that it was going to dissolve into nothing, it became kind of a priority to bring my camera to work and preserve images before it’s gone.’
Her photographs attracted enough attention that Virgin America headquarters took notice. She spent two years at the corporate office taking photographs for the company before returning to flying.
Her photographs captured the attention of the higher-ups at Virgin America who asked her to spend two years in the corporate office taking photographs of the company
Virgin America was purchased by Alaska Airlines in March 2017 and Choma said the sale created a sense of urgency for her to continue with her project.
The series of photographs opened up other opportunities for Choma. She will be traveling to the 2018 Winter Olympics to photograph the USA bobsled and skeleton teams