Getting her tongue pierced was “exciting and scary” says a teen who succumbed to pressure from her best friend in Austin, Texas, February 22, 2008. This image is featured in National Geographic's exhibition “Women of Vision: National Geographic Photographers on Assignment”, on view at the Palm Beach Photographic Centre, Jan. 22 - Mar. 22, 2015. (Photo by Kitra Cahana/National Geographic)

People walk behind the Medusa head in the Basilica Cistern in Istanbul, Turkey, 24 July 2022. The site has been restored by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and is now open for visitors again. The Byzantine structure was commissioned by Emperor Justinian and built in 532. The underground Basilica, also called Underground Cistern, is the largest well preserved cistern in Istanbul, which rests on a total of 336 columns. According to historical texts, more than 7,000 slaves were involved in the construction of the cistern. (Photo by Sedat Suna/EPA/EFE)

A skier in a festive costume attempts to cross a pool of water at the foot of a ski slope while competing in the annual Gornoluzhnik amateur event to mark the end of the ski season at the Bobrovy Log ski resort in the suburbs of the Siberian city of Krasnoyarsk, Russia, April 14, 2019. (Photo by Ilya Naymushin/Reuters)

“This grey adult male seal enjoys a good grin while lying on the beach”. (Photo by Michael Hutch/SplashdownDirect via Rex USA)

A hot-air balloon flies over Metropolitan Park during the International Hot-Air Balloon Festival in Leon, state of Guanajuato, Mexico, on November 16, 2024. (Photo by Henry Romero/Reuters)

Residents walk past electoral posters in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, January 28, 2017. (Photo by Andres Martinez Casares/Reuters)

Staff members for U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) push a stuffed moose into their office on Capitol Hill on June 11, 2024 in Washington, DC. A stuffed moose named “Marty the Moose” and a stuffed bear named “Kodak the Bear” will be on display in Shaheen's office as part of the thirteenth annual Experience New Hampshire event. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Some of the most powerful narratives of the past decade have been produced by a forward-thinking generation of women photojournalists as different as the places and the subjects they have covered. National Geographic's “Women of Vision” exhibit features the work of 11 photographers and is on display at the Fernbank Museum of Natural History in Atlanta until January 3, 2016. Here: Nujood Ali stunned the world in 2008 by obtaining a divorce at age 10 in Yemen, striking a blow against forced marriage. (Photo by Stephanie Sinclair/National Geographic)