Romanian-born photographer Mihaela Noroc has been photographing women around the world for the last four years. She’s captured portraits in close to 60 countries from Afghanistan to Iceland. Noroc is calling her project The Atlas of Beauty, and she’s planning on publishing a book of her photographs this year. She is being followed by over one million people on social media.
„I’m a 33 years old photographer from Bucharest, Romania, but I spent most of the last 6 years traveling in different countries of the world.
My father is a painter so since my childhood I was surrounded by colours. When I was 16, I discovered photography but, unfortunately, in the next years I couldn’t make a living from it, so I had to work in other fields, where I could earn a decent income. Traveling during vacations as a backpacker, in different parts of the world, made me discover the diversity of our planet. So when I was 27 I decided to quit my ordinary life in Bucharest and put all my efforts and savings into travel and photography. That’s when I created The Atlas of Beauty.
In time the project became very popular all around the world, but today I believe I’m the same ordinary person like 6 years ago that loves to discover the unnoticed beauty which blooms in every woman.
I see myself like a normal woman, with ups and downs. I work hard for my dream, and, fortunately, this dream is very appreciated by a large audience. But there are millions of women in the world, that work even harder for their goals and their activities don’t seem so spectacular from the outside. I hope I will have the chance to photograph some of them for the project, capturing their inner and outer beauty and showing how special they are”.
Noroc got her first camera at the age of 16. Her first subjects were her sister and mother.