Name: The beauty of empowerment: Women of the world
Uploaded: 2025-12-07T15:20:36.543Z
Duration: 3 min 58 s
Description: Since 2013, Mihaela Noroc has photographed women in nearly 100 countries. Her images reveal diversity and strength beyond normative beauty ideals.

Since 2013, Mihaela Noroc has photographed women in nearly 100 countries. Her images reveal diversity and strength beyond normative beauty ideals.

Mihaela Noroc, a Romanian photographer, has traveled to almost 100 countries since 2013, capturing portraits of thousands of women for her project, The Atlas of Beauty. Her work highlights women from diverse backgrounds, including those who defy traditional beauty standards and survivors of violence, aiming to showcase their strength and authenticity.

Noroc's photography emphasizes natural beauty and real-life stories, with minimal post-processing to maintain authenticity. Her acclaimed work, followed by hundreds of thousands on Instagram, has resulted in several books, with future plans to continue documenting women's stories worldwide.

The beauty of empowerment: Women of the world

This photographer sets herself aside from the gloss of magazines, choosing instead to find naturally striking, expressive women. For her, inspiration is found in the everyday. My name is Mihaela Noroc. I traveled in almost 100 countries and I photographed thousands of women and I had this amazing chance to discover all the stories around the world. The native Romanian has been photographing women across the world since 2013, as part of her project, The Atlas of Beauty. Her Instagram boasts over 440,000 followers. Her latest book, released in 2025, is dedicated to the power of women. Her portraits feature mainly classically beautiful women, but also those who defy traditional beauty standards. Some survivors of violence, like this woman from Iran who survived an acid attack. I put myself in their situation and for sure I know that I would not have the power to to smile again if I would have been through what they were, you know, what they experienced. I don't think I would have had the power to still be okay. So they have a certain special power that I want to learn from, I want to understand how did they do it, what is their secret, you know. Mihaela comes across her models by chance. Here in the Romanian city of Sibiu, she scans for potential candidates, but not everyone accepts. There are different reasons women say no. My father, my brother, my husband will not allow me. That's the saddest reason for me. That's the saddest, saddest reason. But then luck strikes. A market vendor agrees to a photo. Mihaela makes sure to explain the goal of her project first. Both are happy with how the shots turned out. I always try to find women that have like a positive, you know, like a positive effect on me or on the people that follow my work. For me to learn from that woman something. For me to be inspired by her in some sorts of ways, you know. After a few hours, Mihaela calls it a day. She reviews her shots, keeping post-processing to a minimum. Authenticity is key. I hope that my pictures are natural and that they give you the impression of real life. So I don't try to recreate a fantasy world, I try to show a natural world. Her photos are highly acclaimed. Strong book sales have kept Mihaela motivated and she's not short on ideas for future volumes. My plans for the future are very simple. I want to continue this project all my life. I'm going to do this work all my life. So as many years as I live, I'm going to keep photographing women and tell their story because, you see, we are surrounded by so many incredible women and nobody notices them. I'm the one to do it. In the next years, I want to do a book with women of Romania. After that, maybe I'll do a book with mothers of the world. I don't know. Just keep on exploring and exploring. For Mihaela Noroc, beauty knows no borders. Her lens proves that it isn't really about norms at all. Beauty comes from within. From confidence, resilience and authenticity.

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