Photographer Joana Choumali’s latest project explores body image and beauty by documenting the men building Abidjan’s clothing models. The “Awoulaba” mannequin is a customised model designed with the African ideal of beauty in mind, curvier than the stick-thin examples usually seen in the west. They first appeared in 2011, and have since become a familiar sight outside the numerous clothing shops dotted throughout Ivory Coast’s capital, Abidjan. Here: An apprentice lines up his work on a roadside. (Photo by Joana Choumali)

A young Indian girl dressed as Hindu goddess Laxmi participates in a procession to mark “Gudi Padwa”, or Maharashtrian New Year, in Mumbai, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Friday, April 8, 2016. (Photo by Rajanish Kakade/AP Photo)

A woman pours alcohol from the bottle into her mouth at the Far Hills Race Day at Moorland Farms in Far Hills, New Jersey, October 17, 2015. Young locals in New Jersey catch up with friends from school and college days at the Far Hills Race Day, which started as a fox-hunting event in the early 1900s. Many racegoers first went to the Hunt, as it's known locally, as children, but nowadays it's an alcohol-fuelled party for them. Makeshift bars are set up in cars, with the horses' efforts on the turf sometimes a backdrop to the main event. (Photo by Stephanie Keith/Reuters)

A Mapuche Indian child waves a Mapuche people flag during a protest march by Mapuche Indian activists against Columbus Day in downtown Santiago, Chile, October 12, 2015. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)

An Indian worker crosses a street holding a shovel during monsoon rains in Prayagraj, in the northern Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, Wednesday, July 29, 2020. (Photo by Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP Photo)

“Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer, and actress. Nicknamed the “Bronze Venus”, the “Black Pearl”, and even the “Créole Goddess” in anglophone nations.

Baker was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture and to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (she was offered the unofficial leadership of the movement by Coretta Scott King in 1968 following Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination, but turned it down), for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de guerre”.

Photo: American entertainer Josephine Baker in costume for her famous “banana dance”. Baker was an overnight sensation when she arrived in Paris in the mid-1920s. (Photo by Walery/Getty Images)

Angela Ponce, 24, (R) gets help from a fellow contestant getting dressed to compete in the "Miss World Spain" pageant in Estepona, southern Spain, October 25, 2015. Ponce, the first openly transsexual woman to compete to represent Spain at the Miss World pageant, was eliminated in the first knockout round. But Ponce already feels like a winner, she said, because her participation has brought visibility for the transgender community. "We need to educate society for diversity", Ponce said. (Photo by Susana Vera/Reuters)

A woman taking a nap on mangoes at city market area after the city eased the lockdown in Bangalore, India 12 July 2021. The Karnataka government eases in covid-19 related lockdown restrictions in the wake of lower coronavirus cases and positivity rate falling below 5% percent. The Karnataka state government administering record 2.5-crore doses till date since the vaccination drive was launched across the state on January 16, Karnataka ranked first in South India in inoculating maximum number of its eligible population, said state Health Minister K. Sudhakar. (Photo by Jagadeesh N.V./EPA/EFE)