The Atlas of Beauty by Mihaela Noroc

The Atlas of Beauty is a project started with the goal of capturing beauty of our world and its cultures and traditions. It is done by Mihaela Noroc, a Romanian photographer that decided to save money, quit her job and go travel the world. While many people just dream about this scenario, Mihaela actually did it! She packed her backpack and her camera and embarked on an amazing journey. She visited around sixty countries and numerous cities. Her journey went from Tokyo to small African villages still inhabited by tribes. While mingling with the locals and discovering various corners of the world, Mihaela captured interesting faces that she came across. As she explains, because of the budget, she is focused on photographing females that are in her age group (she is 30 years old). But, she hopes to expand the project and bring more diversity to it.

You might ask why is it so important to capture beauty of women around the globe. The photographer explains:

“Maybe in 50 years all women from all around the world will dress and act the same. I hope my project will remain a witness of my era’s cultures and traditions.”

While for some beauty is just skin deep, Mihaela goes much deeper. She captures folklore, difference customs and the zeitgeist. She documents the diversity of beauty through various faces. As she said:

“In my opinion, beauty means to keep alive your origins and your culture. To be natural, sincere, authentic, particular, not necessary fashion.”

I personally think that in this era of Photoshop and very unrealistic beauty ideals set for modern girls, The Atlas of Beauty should be here to remind us that beauty comes with a story. It comes with heritage, tradition, culture and therefore it comes in different shapes, sizes and colours. And all of them are beautiful. Celebrate diversity and find the courage to be yourself. Find the strength to stand out instead of trying so hard to fit in. Because at the end, beauty comes from your confidence and you being comfortable with who you are. And that is all that matters.