Recommended Reading: The Atlas of Beauty, Mihaela Noroc
We're in love with Mihaela Niroc's recently-published photography collection.
Having followed Mihaela on Instagram for years, it was no surprise when she announced she'd publish a book, a compendium would be more accurate, of her extensive portfolio.
Her subjects: Women of the World
The Atlas of Beauty: Women of the World in 500 Portraits is a visual tour-de-force to shock you into a new perception of beauty. Sixty countries, hundreds of women, representing cultures as diverse as you can imagine.
Mihaela traveled the world for four years, capturing authentic portraits of women she met through her travels. A young woman en route to a Holi festival in India, a child in traditional garb in Mongolia, an elder-Iranian woman smiling brightly.
Alongside many of the portraits are stories from their women pictured.
Photo by Michaela Noroc.
There’s something magic about Kadıköy pier, late in the afternoon. Hundreds of people gather to watch how the sun sets over the minarets of Istanbul, Turkey. Beste was singing there with her band completing this splendid moment.quote
Other anecdotes are like this one, discussing the setting, the city, or the atmosphere around the subject.
What this book is devoid of is any aspirational or inspirational commentary about beauty. There are no comparisons, no biased narrative. This collection of portraits purely illustrates the diversity of women across our planet.
Our standards for beauty vary country by country, culture by culture. What The Atlas of Beauty does effortlessly is to smash those variables and showcase the soul of her subjects. Each portrait, even those taken in busy city squares, is an intimate moment where the woman on one side shares a piece of herself with Mihaela, her photographer.
You can order The Atlas of Beauty from her website and follow her on Instagram for daily photo shares.
Photo by @ameliabartlett
What are your favorite female-focused reads?
Share them in the comments!
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Pretty much all of my reading is in the science fiction and fantasy genre, as you probably know. And, for me, picking favorites is very hard. But I'll highlight a book I was very fortunate to publish in Hebrew, which is Naomi Novik's instant fantasy classic UPROOTED.
This is the Hebrew cover, designed by a woman, the brilliant designer of all of my covers, Or Rosenstein:
It was translated by a woman, my best friend and best translator in Israel Yael Achmon, and the translation was copy edited by a woman, my adoptive sister (as in, she announced I'm her brother a few years ago) Shira Dinur. So apart from my own translation edit, the Nova Press of this novel, written by a woman, about a woman, is as female-focused as it gets.
Interesting concept, and I like how it promotes a universal acceptance of different standards of beauty, something I think we all could use. I even notice it going from region to region within the US, for some reason being overly fake-tanned with highlights and absurd amounts of makeup has become the thing for some people. Good for them for pursuing their definition of beauty, I just think it's a shame that the unattainable standards pop culture has set for women seems to push them into these outwardly extreme modifications. Celebrate your natural beauty, ladies.
I met lots of great women from my region on my motherhood journey through facebook. Some doulas, some self employed, artist ect. They are doing tons for womens rights and voices.
The latest thing I was captured by is this project on body love and self appreciation that is really local, Love, live, write. One of my dear friends was a part of it @sanjalydia
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1564512606979181&id=1557520537678388
If you'd like I can translate it later.
And I am do happy about The Atlas of Beauty. I was following her on Facebook for a while.
I love this series. I didn't know there was a book, considering buying it now!
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