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Photographer Mihaela Noroc's portraits reveal that beauty isn't the commercialized form we often see in the mass media. She embarked on the journey of documenting everyday women she encountered on her travels in 2013. Dubbed "The Atlas of Beauty," the collection of striking photographs serves as a lens that reveals what it's like to be a woman in different parts of the globe.

Noroc took this photo of Anais in Berlin, Germany. Anais embodies the concept of blurred cultural divides with a French father and mother who hails from Mali. According to her, she embraces both cultures, evidenced by the beautiful ensemble she wore on this occasion.

Iran

Noroc captured this snapshot of Mahsa, a graphic designer, in Tehran, Iran. Her name translates to "like a moon," and she explained that her proudest moment in life was turning eighteen and becoming financially independent. In her younger years, Mahsa's father steered her toward a career in medicine, but she chose to pursue her passion for the arts instead.

The fight for gender equality in Iran continues to this day, and unfortunately, the nation's women still can't access several civil rights and liberties. For instance, women inherit half the sum men would, and they are not allowed to walk in public without wearing a veil.

Nepal

The lady in the picture is Sona from Nepal. Noroc took this photo of her on the streets of Kathmandu as she was celebrating the Hindu festival of colors, which is one of the most spectacular gatherings witnessed in the globe. Holi marks the onset of spring when good triumphs over evil, and it's a time to be forgiven and to forgive.

Kathmandu is the capital city of Nepal. The town is a bustling metropolis home to many shrines, temples, important cultural & historical spots, and seven UNESCO Heritage sites. The sacred Bagmati River flows through and is also a popular destination for trekkers, mountaineers, and adventure seekers.

Cuba

Elianis has the most striking eyes, and as the first thing most people notice about her, they always ask if she plans to venture into modeling. That isn’t the case, and according to what she told Noroc, she has other aspirations. Her goal is to complete her studies and pursue a career as a nurse.

Talking to the HuffPost, Noroc explained that beauty shouldn’t have a standard definition. From her point of view, it is about being natural, authentic, and simply your true self. She added that it is all around us, and we only need to open our eyes and see it.

Tibet

The portrait showcases a breathtaking shot of a graceful woman from the Tibetan Plateau. The mother of two resides in a rural village. When the photographer knocked on her door, she opened it looking like this. She was wearing statement pieces on her neck and ears, yet she was cleaning her residence.

Mihaela Noroc soon discovered that Tibetan ladies display this style in all moments of their lives. The Great Tibet Tour website states that females in the plateau have brilliant smiles, generous laughs, and rich expressions on their faces. They are generally naturally cheerful and remain calm even when facing misfortunes in their lives.

Mongolia

Clad in a "deel," which is traditional Mongolian attire, the camera managed to capture an image of the lady on a public road. Interestingly, one exciting aspect of the country is red cheeks. Nomadic Mongolians who hail from the countryside boast of naturally blushed red cheeks without any applications.

Women from the country were also known for their long-braided hair. It is a tradition that is fading as more people move into big cities. Mongolia is a landlocked county in East Asia with a population of 3.3M. It has been ruled by various empires, including Xianbei and Xiongnu. The region is also known to have a high population of Buddhist monks.

Afghanistan

The snap taken in Afghanistan's Wakhan Valley showcases a lady working in the field in one of the world's most remote places. Life here is too harsh, with most problems cropping up from the war in the country. The conflicts that dominated the nation never got to her village, but they were close, stealing any chance she had to pursue a better life.

Sadly, the evidence of pain in her eyes and soul can be seen through the print. A lot of lives were lost as a result of the Afghanistan combat. Survivors also have to deal with dire economic consequences like poverty, where most cannot afford healthcare and food.

Turkey

You are looking at a courageous woman who decided to take a bold and move from Cyprus to study acting in Istanbul, Turkey. She must have made the right choice because plenty of institutions offer the course. The country is also well-known for numerous productions and a massive audience.

It is also great to see such a frame on a worldwide platform, seeing that many women who consider themselves showstoppers in the nation are often petite, and the plus-size ladies do not stand out. The snapshot indicates that prettiness comes in all shapes and sizes, with none superior to the other.

Greece

Talking to the HuffPost, Noroc said that a search on Google for “beautiful woman” generates images of seductive ladies. However, in the real world, beauty is reflected in many more facets that she wanted to capture and celebrate. She hoped to look beyond aesthetics and possibly shape the way we view our communities and cultures.

This is a photo of a mother and her two daughters taken at the Idomeni Refugee Camp in Greece. They sought refuge in the camp, following the war in Syria. The portrait perfectly captures Noroc's sentiments that beauty has no borders and neither should tolerance and kindness.

 Iceland

The process of finding her subjects involved walking up to women on the streets and striking a rapport. People also contacted Noroc through social media with suggestions about ladies that she could feature in her project. For her, the selection process was largely instinctive.

She met Thorunn, the pictured lady, in Reykjavik, Iceland. An activist and singer, Thorunn brought a third of the women in her country together via the online community dubbed “Good Sister.” At the time she posed for this photo, Thorunn had recently welcomed a baby girl and hoped that her daughter would grow up confident and happy.

Azerbaijan

Noroc did her best to spend as much time as she could with each of her subjects after taking their photos, to learn more about their stories. The majority of women were happy to feature in the project but a few flat-out refused to be part of it.

That wasn’t the case with Fidan, who posed for a photo in Baku, Azerbaijan. Most ladies in the nation have to ask their husbands for permission before getting photographed. More Azerbaijani women are now fighting for gender equality, including Fidan who stated that she would never get into a relationship where she isn’t respected.

Italy

The women who refused to take part in Noroc’s project were mostly those from conservative communities who feared what others would think about them. Others were living in dangerous places and they didn’t feel secure posing for photographs.

It dawned on her that women face a lot of pressure from the world and gave her the resolve to represent these struggles as well as their dreams. Barbara and her daughter Caterina, who is a ballerina, posed for this photo on the streets of Milan, Italy. In 2018, while still trekking through South Korea, Bangladesh, Japan, and Myanmar to continue the project, Noroc was heavily pregnant.

Romania

Meet Alice, who agreed to pose in public in Timisoara, Romania, proudly wearing her graduation cap. She told Mihaela Noroc who took the still that her first years in school were the worst because of bullies in her unit constantly insulting her and telling her that she was stupid. It led the scholar to lose her self-esteem.

At some point, the young girl in the picture performed dismally, scoring poor marks. She opted to ignore the bullies and focus on studying. The decision paid off because her marks drastically improved. In 2017, her name was among the top performers at the National Mathematical Olympiad.

Belgium

Ania is a joyful woman born in Poland without a right leg. Her mother abandoned her in the hospital and pleaded with a doctor to keep her. The medical expert let her stay in the maternity hospital illegally for months. At 19 months, she was adopted by a family from Belgium.

Amazing parents raised her on a farm surrounded by animals and nature. As a kid, she loved running in the forest and rocks because it was freeing. She took up the passion in adulthood, putting on prosthetics and dreaming of becoming an athlete. She's also interested in finding her biological mum but does not condemn her actions.

Amazon Rainforest

Kichwa is posing on a tree while rocking her wedding outfit. She lives in the Ecuadorian region of the Amazon rainforest. Located in South America, the world’s largest forest spans Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Suriname, French Guiana, and Guyana.

The Amazon rainforest has vital links between human survival and global warming. It has a rich ecosystem with thousands of plant, bird, and fish species plus millions of insects. It is also home to deadly creatures like flesh-eating piranhas and venomous snakes. Indigenous women warriors are fighting hard to save the forest from threats like mining, poaching, illegal logging, commercial fishing, and wildfires.

Ethiopia

The high temperatures experienced in the Omo Valley region of Ethiopia influences the community’s lifestyle as well as their outfit choices. It isn’t uncommon for the residents to forgo wearing clothes altogether. This lady hails from the Daasanach tribe, who have lived in isolation for generations.

The Cushitic group also inhabits parts of South Sudan and Kenya, but their original homeland is the Debub Omo Zone. A clan of agro-pastoralists, the women’s ensembles include pleated cow skin skirts topped off with elaborately colorful beaded bracelets and necklaces. On the other hand, the men tie a checkered piece of cloth around their waists.

Guatemala

Not many people have wild stories about their existence, like Jacinta from Chichicastenango, a village in Guatemala. Her birth was nothing short of a miracle because she was born after a failed abortion. She is a survivor who has been on earth for more than a century.

Being the youngest daughter, it was her responsibility to care for her folks till their last day on earth. She lives with her granddaughter, who praises her grandma for being humorous and young in spirit. Jacinta loves to cook and learned Spanish at an older age to catch up on television programs in the language.

France

The lady pictured loves diversity in the world. She has both European and African roots. Imane, who resides in Paris, studies art. She takes up babysitting jobs and works in three restaurants to support herself.
She hopes to own a colossal art gallery in the future that will support artists from different cultures giving them an avenue to come together.

This is her idea of combining the things she holds dear; that is her love for variety and arts. The image was taken in her space as she was visiting an exhibition at Pompidou Center, checking out the latest collections before heading out for an interview.

Nepal

Noroc explained that our world isn’t too tolerant of diversity. However, in the four years Noroc spent backpacking armed with her camera, she also witnessed more kindness than you could imagine. It is just a matter of noticing it and amplifying these acts of goodness rather than giving press to the negatives.

She hopes we can truly make this planet a better place for future generations. Her compilation aims at fostering the message of love and acceptance. She also hopes that her portrait publication can reach as many homes across the globe so that girls can grow up with a different perception of beauty.

Switzerland

Noroc took this photo of two sisters, Rebecca and Patricia, at the Zurich Central Station in Switzerland. The two have a one-year difference, and they grew up as best friends. Other kids would laugh at their red hair, but it only brought them closer together. They embody the message that diversity is a treasure.

Red hair is connected to the MC1R gene, a rare and recessive trait that occurs in about 2% of the global population. Both parents must carry the gene to pass it on to their children. The attribute also often skips generations, and the rarest of all are redheads who also have blue eyes.

Guatemala

As Noroc aptly put it, most women carry heavy burdens every day, whether literally or like in this case, figuratively. Still, they do it with a lot of positivity and tenderness. Her photography project took speed online and it wasn’t long before her inspiring photos went viral across different social media platforms.

The images now form the 500-page coffee table publication Noroc released in 2017. The project is ongoing and she hopes to make it a lifelong series that promotes the beauty of humanity. So far, she has covered 50 countries and photographed at least 500 women. Each photo is accompanied by a caption explaining each woman’s personal story.

Myanmar

Noroc came across this lady at a local market in Nampan, Myanmar. Her expressive face and eyes bring out a profound sense of kindness. Soon, she and the other women featured in the “Atlas of Beauty” will become NFT collections. The vision is to have 1,000 NFTs available depicting the women that Noroc has captured in the last nine years.

She also envisions opening a gallery where the 1,000 portraits will feature as permanent displays. NFT buyers will be co-owners in this sense, and if the projective wasn’t already inspiring, it is embracing art to uplift women and tell their stories in a unique way.

Nepal

Noroc came across this woman and her son on the streets of Kathmandu, Nepal. While she didn’t speak English, her son did and served as their interpreter. She explained to the young man her intentions to photograph his mom. He asked why, and Noroc explained that it was simply because she is beautiful.

Hearing the lovely sentiments, the boy looked at his mother and agreed that she is indeed beautiful. That is an interaction that will possibly stay with the boy for a long time to come, and an added plus is seeing his mother’s photo included in the heartwarming compilation.

Romania

Magda best exemplifies the famous saying about disability not being an inability. She regularly puts together creative fashion showcases in Bucharest, Romania, and the twist is that the lineups exclusively include female models in wheelchairs. She became wheelchair-bound in 2005, after getting involved in a terrible auto accident.

Magda explained to Noroc that her goal is to change society’s perception of people who use mobility aids. Sadly, in most countries, you will hardly ever see people in wheelchairs out and about in public areas. Unfortunately, most countries across the world are yet to set up proper infrastructure to accommodate people with disabilities.

Russia

Nastya came across Noroc at the shop where she works in Korolyov, Russia, taking passport photos. She has bigger dreams, and her goal is to eventually start taking landscape pictures of various sites around the world. Her journey to becoming a professional shutterbug started when she studied photography.

While her daily life makes it seem like the ambition is perhaps far away, it doesn’t keep her from working towards achieving it. Given that she is a professional in the field, Noroc possibly shared some words of wisdom with Nastya and perhaps steered her in the right direction to pursue her ultimate dream.

Ethiopia

Samira hails from the Tigrayan ethnic group in Ethiopia, and she encountered Noroc at a coffee shop in Addis Ababa. She was with a friend, and the pair formed a close friendship despite having different religious views. Samira is a Muslim while her friend ascribes to Christianity.

Noroc explains that in a land with several ethnic groups and religions, she witnesses several friendships transcend these divides. Unfortunately, she also witnessed terrible conflicts rooted in ethnic differences. What drew her shutterbug senses to Samira is the serene look she has, and it further affirms that there are kind-hearted people all over the world.

Nepal

On a particularly gorgeous Sunday in 2015, Noroc, like other Pokhara locals, headed over to the splendid Lake Phewa. The water body is a favorite place to while the weekend away, and it just happens to be where she came across this lady. Pokhara is the capital of Nepal’s Gandaki Province and the nation’s second-most populous city.

The city is also a popular tourist destination and serves as a base for trekkers taking on the mighty Annapurna Circuit. The Sarangkot, which is found across the shores of Phewa Lake, and the World Peace Pagoda are the city’s two major hilltops that provide panoramic views of the surroundings.

Iraq

Noroc met Hasa, who was on her way to school, at a refugee camp in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region. Unfortunately, when Isis attacked the village in Syria, she lost her six younger cousins. She expressed gratitude for her life and her ability to continue her studies. Women are 49.4% of the Syrian population but cannot actively participate in everyday life.

The country first allowed women to vote in 1953, and Najah al-Attar has served as the nation’s Vice President since 2006. She is the first woman of Aran descent to hold the post, and previously, she served as the country’s Minister of Culture.

Portugal

Daniela lives in Lisbon, Portugal, and she has Angolan roots. She serves as another example of diversity at its best, and Noroc added that it was heartwarming seeing people from different cultural backgrounds living in harmony. Angola is located on Southern Africa’s west coast, and the government initiated a program to elevate its women’s status.

The Ministry for Family and Women was historically integral in separating the political agenda from women’s issues. Still, critical reform matters such as pregnancy awareness and voting rights among women haven’t been adequately institutionalized. The Ministry is also one of the country’s most underfunded programs.

 India

Noroc noted that her travels revealed that scores of women are joining the armed forces all across the world. She came across this lady in Pushkar, India, and the nation allows women to join combat services as officers, and several also hold supervisory roles. The Indian Air Force has the most significant number of female officers, followed by the Indian Navy and Indian Army.

As of 2020, three female officers from the Medical Services hold the rank of lieutenant general or its equivalent rank. Reportedly 83 women became Jawans, which describes a soldier in the Indian Army, in 2021. The Jawans were assimilated into the Corps of Military Police.