The Atlas of Beauty: Women of the World in 500 Portraits

I have copies of the national geographic portraits and Humans of New York art photo books, I follow the HONY photographer on facebook but I had not heard of the author/photographer of this book until I saw the book in a bookshop short time ago. I am considering finding them online and following them now, this book is really great. The photographs are portrait pictures from around the world, a lot of different ethnicities and contexts, although they all had the feel of being spontaneous and unposed, an instant in time as opposed to the highly stylistic studio productions. Accompanying each of the pictures are names, places, sometimes something of a short statement. Two of the pictures I liked the most where of the Kurdish women fighters, although it was sad to read that one of them would have liked to see the book published but was unsure they would survive their on going armed struggle with ISIS (especially considering subsequent developments, foreshadowed by author's detailing that the US and Turkey had identified the Kurdish Workers Party as a "terrorist organisation"). Personally, I really liked that the book is an arrangement of face on portraits, the eyes are very clear of each of the subjects, looking out from the picture. It is really beautiful and vivid. This is what the best of the National Geographic picture books achieved, including, famously, the Afghan girl, while the incorporation of dialogue and paragraphs providing context resemble the Humans of New York books. This is a great book, for anyone who appreciates the diversity and beauty of humanity and women this would be a perfect book. I recommend it, while the book did portray diversity in terms of ethnic groups, even age and disability, diversity in stature, height, weight, physique are perhaps given less of a profile. For sketch artists, and particularly portrait artists, this would be a good source. It is a picture/photography book but I think there is enough reading too, the accent is obviously going to be on the pictures, as you would expect but the writing is good too. Recommended.

I have been following this photographer since summer 2017 via social media. Her journey is amazing, her stories more so, and her vision is a fresh of breath air all captured and presented in this beautiful book! I love the display of individuality and beauty in each women, but deeper than that, the connections and familiarities we can all have even though we may never meet eachother in real life. Traditions, culture, fashion, mannerisms are all captured in this exquisite collection. My two year old daughter loves it and is rather taken on the four mexican fire fighters. That is her favourite photo and one she asks to see on a regular basis. I knew i would love this book, so i rated it 5 stars it is an eternal book my children will grow up seeing. One for anyone who loves art, culture and images of life around the world. Thank you and Well done to Mihaela

I recently watched Levison's Wood "Walking the Americas" and "Walking the Caucasus" and whilst I enjoy his programmes, I couldn't help but notice the total absence of women he interacts with on these travels. We seem him drinking beer and having a laugh with the blokes but the women in these countries are virtually non-existent. So I was thrilled to get my hands on this lovely book which, aside from having absolutely stunning photography, also includes many of the stories and a brief snippet of the lives of the women in these pages, in some case, eye-opening stories. To call this book a coffee table book is doing it a disservice. I found myself moved by quite a few of the stories. A fabulous accomplishment.

This is a really stunning collection of the amazing diversity of women on earth. I heard once “Our beauty lies in our differences” and this book truly proves that. It’s not all differences though, there are so many similarities from such different places. I love the format of this book, the layout, that all the locations of pictures are given and the scattering of details about some of the women. I am in in awe and quite jealous of Ms Noroc’s travels and beautiful photography. I wish I had a little of her courage and talent. I look forward to following her future discoveries on Facebook and hopefully in a future collection like this one.

The concept is beautiful, the women, the photographs, just love it. I love the photographer's work and think she has started a beautiful project which I hope she continues. Great idea for a gift

Beautiful book and amazing pictures

A stunning picture book containing photographs of women with a line or two of text about the person, but nothing indepth about the person. There is no discernable message to me as the women appear to have been chosen randomly and they posed for the shots.

Bought this for my friend’s 50th birthday present. She loved it

Fazia muito tempo que eu queria este livro. São belíssimas fotos de mulheres de vários lugares do mundo. Ótimo para o estudo de retratos ou apenas para apreciar a diversidade de beleza que a autora conseguiu retratar. Lindo livro.

Le donne viste tramite la lente di un altra donna. Bellissime foto e bellissime donne.

Great book. Contains amazong photos of (as name suggests) beauty around the world with great quality paper and printing.

Ce projet extraordinaire, photographier les femmes du monde entier et montrer que la beauté est partout autour de nous dans leurs sourires et dans leurs yeux, sans artifice, sans maquillage, sans studio, sans modèle stéréotypé jusqu'à la nausée et surtout sans photoshop et ses retouches assassines de la vraie beauté. Quel plus beau projet que celui-là dans nos temps de violences faites aux femmes, quel plus beau projet que d'opposer la beauté rayonnante et simple de toutes ces femmes à la bêtise et l'ignorance des hommes. Le livre est superbe, d'une extrême qualité. Les tirages sont respectueux de toutes les couleurs naturelles. On est à des années lumière des photos de papier glacé distantes et impersonnelles. Vous avez entre les mains plus que des photos, des morceaux de vie vivants et vibrants!

Es un extraordinario libro, en que se ven reflejadas las mujeres, hermosas fotografias, hermosas mujeres y gran impresion, en sintesis un gran libro