Photographer’s Portraits Capture What Beauty Looks Like Around The World

Photographer Mihaela Noroc has been traveling the world and photographing women since 2013. Born in Romania, she’s since taken photographs in nearly 60 countries, from Afghanistan to Iceland to Cuba.

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Noroc’s project is called “Atlas of Beauty.” The idea is to show the planet’s diversity through portraits of women. The project began after Noroc quit her job at the age of 27 and put her efforts and savings into travel and photography, so inspired was she by a trip she had taken to Ethiopia. Since then, Atlas of Beauty has become popular around the world, with a strong following on social media. More than 1 million people follow the project on Facebook, with nearly 200,000 viewing the stunning photos on Instagram.

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“I see myself like a very normal woman, with ups and downs. I work hard for my dream, and, by chance, this dream is very appreciated by mass media,” Noroc writes on her website. “But there are millions of women in the world, that work even harder for their goals and maybe their activities don’t seem so spectacular from the outside. I hope I will have the chance to photograph some of them for the project, capturing their inner and outer beauty and showing them how special they are.”

Noroc speaks five languages, helping her communicate with women in other countries, but she sometimes uses translators or relies on body language.

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“Through my photography I want to capture that feeling of warmth and serenity which comes from the eyes of a woman and can balance sometimes the negativity we see in the media,” Noroc writes. “Many people from all around the world face discrimination just because they have a certain color, religion, ethnicity or because they are women. I think beauty is diversity and it can teach us to be more tolerant.”

Noroc plans on publishing a book of her photographs this year. More of the incredible photos are below:

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