Photographer Travels the World to Capture the Diversity of Beauty in 37 Different Countries

By Jenny Zhang on February 21, 2015

Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc is on a mission to capture portraits of women from every country in the world in order to shed light on the beauty that exists everywhere. A little over two years ago, at the age of 27, Noroc quit her job, withdrew all her life savings, and embarked on an incredible journey across the globe with little more than her camera and backpack. Her travels so far are documented in The Atlas of Beauty, an ongoing project that features a diverse array of local women from 37 different countries and almost every single continent.

Noroc, who speaks five languages fluently, says that it's usually not a challenge to communicate with her subjects. Sometimes she only has 30 seconds to snap a quick shot of a woman she's stopped on the street, while other times she may spend up to an hour photographing someone she scouted on social media the day before. Either way, the photographer always tries her best to make the woman feel special, unique, and proud of the native culture she's representing.

“Now I can say that beauty is everywhere, and it's not a matter of cosmetics or sizes but more about being yourself,” Noroc shares in an article on Bored Panda. “Global trends make us look and behave the same, but we are all beautiful because we are different. In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and the beholder is always somebody else. My goal is to continue and take photos of women from each country of the globe, making The Atlas Of Beauty a mirror of our diverse societies and an inspiration for people that try to remain authentic.”

Although Noroc has focused her lens primarily on young women in her own age group, she hopes to be able to branch out to include more diverse groups of subjects in the future as she continues her journey. She is looking to raise funds that will allow her to travel to other countries and complete her project, with the goal of eventually publishing a book on The Atlas of Beauty.

Above: Tibetan Plateau, China

Nasir al-Mulk Mosque, Shiraz, Iran