World

Romanian photographer maps diversity with 'Atlas of Beauty Project'

Mihaela Noroc quit her job, picked up her camera, packed her backpack and began travelling

Ibriz Sheikh February 23, 2015

PHOTO: Mihaela Noroc

Romanian photographer Mihaela Noroc decided to travel the world to capture images of beauty in difference countries and cultures for her 'Atlas of Beauty Project'.

It was two years ago that the then-27-year-old photographer quit her job, picked up her camera, packed her backpack and began travelling to countries across the globe on the savings she had accumulated in her working years.

With the belief that beauty cannot be defined by one country, race or ethnicity, Noroc spent her savings travelling to 37 countries for her project and hopes to raise funding to continue the project which she is collecting through PayPal.

"I love the variety of earth, the diversity of people and I try to go beyond their surface, to discover their sincere and authentic side, to photograph it," Noroc wrote on her website.

PHOTO: PETAPIXEL

"In my opinion, beauty means to keep alive your origins and your culture. To be natural, sincere, authentic, particular, not necessary fashion or skinny," she added.

Fluent in five languages, Norac captured hundreds of portraits of beautiful women surrounded by their native cultures.

“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.”

She prefers photograph natural faces of people who don't use much makeup and at times only has 30 seconds to shoot a portrait. Other times she does hour-long sessions with subjects after getting in touch with them.

Many Twitter users took to social media in support of the project and there is nothing short of praise for the creativity of the photographer.

https://twitter.com/Ghazal_Rahman/status/567461144756240384

https://twitter.com/NicoleCurioni/status/567586808448692224

An 'atlas of beauty'...what a lovely photography project, showing beautiful women everywhere http://t.co/LddDrm6hpE
— Brij Schuil (@brijschuil) February 17, 2015