For the 29 year old, Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc, beauty is everywhere. It is never about the cosmetics, money, race nor social status but it is about being true to oneself. It is often said that confidence and being proud of who you are makes you beautiful and in Mihaela Noroc’s Atlas of Beauty this is specially the case.
Two years ago Mihaela Noroc decided to quit her job and used her savings from her years of working to travel the world in order to do the Atlas of Beauty. Mihaela traveled through 37 countries around the world on a tight budget. She photographed women in various places and various conditions. From the rough neighborhoods of Colombia to the biggest Buddhist temple of Myanmar, down to Oxford and beautiful suburbs of Sydney.
The women featured in the Atlas of Beauty all have natural faces and without a lot of make-up. There is beauty in imperfection, the freckles, moles as well as scars that helps make Mihaela’s portraits to be sincere and soulful. Some portraits not only feature a face but a pieces of culture and tradition through jewelry, clothing, and location. Mihaela fears that in the future, diversity in beauty would be a thing of the past.
This is because of how global trends influence everyone to abide some sort of a mold that is packaged as the acceptable and adored norm in society. If ever that is to happen, Mihaela says that she wants the Atlas of Beauty of be a witness of this era’s diversity as well as cultures and traditions.
Her journey wasn’t easy, she tells us that she encountered dangerous moments, hard days of working, exhausting routes and unfriendly viruses but regardless of that, she mentioned that she would wholeheartedly do it all over again.She expressed that she also plans to photograph women of different ages but right now she is mainly focused on her own age group. She tells us that in June of this year she would like to start on a new journey to new places, photograph more women and hopefully have an account of the experience it published.
You can find Mihaela Noroc on Facebook and Instagram. Click here if you want to see more of Mihaela’s The Atlas of Beauty and give support to her wonderful project!