It's become a tradition at The Luupe to celebrate Women's History Month and International Women's Day with a collection of self-portraits by women around the world.

This feature keeps us hooked year after year because of the limitless perspectives, interpretations, and ways of seeing. Whether it's a selfie-inspired snap, a tongue-in-cheek joke, a burst of joy, or a slowed-down contemplation, we're here for it.

We invite you to look and read along as participating photographers share the stories behind their images and what makes self-portraiture so meaningful.

▲ "There is a joy in becoming a character and performing for my camera - it is catharsis, exploration, and knowing I am seen. Even if just by myself. Every self-portrait is a chance to meet myself again." © Jaina Cipriano

▲ "I take a self-portrait on my birthday every year to capture and remember who I am currently. I love to look back and see how I’ve been transforming into the woman I’m striving to become. I enjoy expressing my creative spirit visually because that as well is always evolving." Tanya Levache

▲ "I use self-portrait work for self-healing and to express emotions to share with others that they are not alone. Self-portrait work comes to me during meditative visions and subconscious states that in turn, I create to engage others." © Bootsy Holler

▲ "I like to push myself out of my comfort zone both behind the lens and in front of it. A lot of experimental, off-the-way concepts I have in my head I would be more comfortable doing than others, and know how to bring those visions to life in the most artistic way." © Kamerin Chambers

▲ "A number of things inspire me to make a self-portrait. For example, a line of music or poetry, a thought or an idea that I need to express. Mostly, it's a feeling or anything that ignites a feeling within. Making self-portraits is an expression of the soul - it's cathartic and therapeutic." © Diana Hagues

▲ "Performance is a very vulnerable thing; It's also a very honest and close look at one's inner landscape. It was the anxiety of the 2020 lockdowns that inspired a commissioned story surrounding a conversation with one's self in isolation. Influences are reminiscent of a childhood fever dream." - Deb Leal

▲ "This is one image from a personal project, Period Problems, which is about my experiences with endometriosis (March is also Endometriosis Awareness Month). I started the project as a way to process what was happening to me and increase awareness of an "invisible illness." All of the photos in the project are conceptually self-portraits in that they depict what's happening to my body, but I like this one for the prompt because my hands are literally in the piece." © Allaire Bartel

▲ "Sometimes I feel like I don't really exist or like my life doesn't matter. Self-portraiture is a way of seeing myself as a part of this world." © Yasmin Almeida

▲ "I started making self-portraits when my son was young and I had no easy access to other people; in the ensuing years, it became the major means of my expression of my inner landscape." © Diana Nicholette Jeon

▲ "I started making double self-portraits of my daughter and I in 2015. In each portrait, we are shown performing a mundane domestic act (here applying mascara) and in each portrait, I am looking straight at the camera, questioning the viewer's intent for looking at us. My double self-portraits are always an act of both sharing and questioning." © Anna Grevenitis

▲ "In the self-timer: we have to pose without being able to see each other, without being able to choose the shot before the final shot. We have to imagine ourselves and see ourselves in advance in our mind's eye. We pose again, but the paradox is that there is no one who observes but ourselves or rather our imagination. I see myself in the mirror of the mind, I pose as if in front of a mirror, but the mirror does not exist materially." © Anna Marzia Soria

▲ "My younger self inspires me to take self-portraits. She was not as confident or comfortable with herself compared to how she is now. She inspires me to express my true feelings through self-portraits." Jocelyn Flores

▲ "In Judaism, you are not dead until the last person who knows your story is dead. These stories live on, and so all these people live on.” © Kat Slootsky, pictured with her grandmother for Teen Vogue's 2023 feature dedicated to her grandmother, Galina, who was evacuated from Belarus as the Nazis approached. See the full piece here.

▲ "Feel comfortable, probably also safe, not just with what I see, but with what I do represent, for myself, to myself.
I am just like obsessed with being absolutely genuine to my persona.
The one I once was ;
The one I am,
and the one I probably will.
They let me understand my many mutations all over my artist path
They remind me who, how, and where I was back then, they give me absolute perspective of my own steps.
I need to read myself in that image and just see transparency or just the one I was in the moment I shot myself. © Celeste Martearena

▲ "I am inspired to take self-portraits of myself so I can be more confident by putting myself in front of the camera. If I feel confident, then my fellow collaborators will too. In return, I get to photograph better portraits over time." © Elsie Kibue-Ngare

▲ "Self-portraits inspire me to create a visual reminder to be kinder to myself – a version of self-care where I'm able to express vulnerability in a personal way." © Cielito Vivas

▲ "I am always there, so I can do whatever idea I have with relative spontaneity. I like to perform my own life and document it, playing and experimenting with movement as I go through the day." © Flynn Larsen

▲ " I see self-portraiture as photographic meditation. I find it helpful to see the camera from the other side every now and then to consider the nuanced position of the one being photographed. Also, my dogs and partner can only tolerate so many light tests." © Chona Kasinger

▲ "I enjoy being an architectural/interior photographer and it's often funny to see and share some of the predicaments and locations that I end up shooting from. For this photo, I had to hide in the bathtub so as not to see myself in the mirror in my photo of a bathroom." © Andrea Rugg

▲ "Self-portraiture, for me, is a form of self-expression; through photography, I can explore my identity and my own body, the flesh that shapes me. A way to capture and record that I have been but above all that I am." © Cristina Santa Quiteria

▲ "I’ve learned that there’s a whole different world in front of the lens as opposed to behind it and because of that I enjoy learning about both sides. I find it much easier to learn about angles and posing when I take self-portraits and it also supports me in capturing other people. I enjoy getting funky in front of the camera and moving my body in cool ways to convey a message in my images." © Storm Cuff

▲"Self-portraits are the most authentic expression of my relationship to the world around me. It is so very natural for me to use the body as a vessel to create my deepest work. Self-portraiture is at the very core of every body of work I have produced." © Aimee Mccrory

▲ "I have always made self-portraits in times of intense emotion. I feel very deeply, and create in those times." © Grace Mc Nally

▲ "During COVID to figure out a way to reconnect to me, I started to make self-portraits. I did one a day for 90 days." Deanna Flinn

▲ "For much of my artistic career, my work has explored myself and my body and while the themes of these various self-portrait projects have differed, they have all connected back to my own personal experiences. Even though these images are meant to reflect my own life, there is always an element of make-believe. My work plays with the spectrum of fact and fiction, blurring that line in order to make personal visual stories relatable to a larger audience." © Dafna Steinberg

▲ "My relationship with my body has had its ups and downs throughout my life, so much so that making self-portraits is an act of defiance to my inner monologue...I use self-portraiture to love myself better and to be understood." © Grace Puffer

▲ "I love using myself as a subject when I want total control over the expression and emotion behind the character I'm creating." © Katelin Kinney

▲ "When I started photography in 2012 I took a lot of self-portraits. I wanted to find my style as an artist. During the covid-19 pandemic, I used myself as a model again due to lockdowns but it woke something in me – I was back at my roots." © Ninni Emilia West

▲ "Captured in 2020, this image is one of 30 self-portraits that I took during the first 2 months of the pandemic when “stay at home” orders were implemented. It was a very slow, uncertain, and depressing time. I found joy in using self-portraits to occupy myself, experiment in photography and release creativity" © Phylicia J. L. Munn

▲ "As a photographer, self-portraits can be very confronting for me - I am hyper-critical in my image-making process and it is hard to separate the intimacy and rawness of photographing oneself with my striving for an excellent outcome. I find it easier to capture myself when it is less "me" and more a character or persona." © Iri Greco

▲ "Self-portraiture is like developing your own secret language. It allows me to turn my eyes inwards and intimately and honestly respond to my surroundings, my light, the body I have, and the story I am telling." -© Hanna Wolf

▲ "Middle age is the time when women are considered to be past our prime and start to become invisible. Well, I have no desire to begin any kind of disappearing act. I feel alive, awake, sexy, strong, and adventurous. I feel like swinging from the tree tops, and I most certainly do not feel like hiding." © Jamie Schofield Riva

▲ "Self-portraits have become a way for me to express my feelings and find acceptance in who I am." © Angela Ramsey

▲ "I find inspiration in daily life's ordinary moments and objects. I often imagine myself as an object in a specific situation and color. The interplay of colors and textures in life is a sensory experience that brings me joy, like eating chocolate. I spend lots of time thinking about what a song would look like as an image. My art serves as a way to represent and express my emotions in a tangible form. I create visual representations of intangible feelings for self-reflection and connection with the world. © Jasmin Hedger

▲ "I use self-portraits as a way to keep creative when I’ve got time (it’s easier when the only person I have to coordinate schedules with is myself!) I think there’s also a somewhat selfish component––I’m usually the one taking photos, so it’s nice to have a record of myself to put out into the world." ©storm Linnea Bullion

▲ " Photographing myself, I tried to understand why it is often difficult for people to accept their image in photographs. Why do we see ourselves differently in the mirror and how can we combine reality with the representation of ourselves?" © Sasha Sitdikova

▲ "Self-portraiture is a way to play with oneself and also to be someone else. It is how we express ourselves and how we feel." © Estefania Ramos

▲ "Looking in the mirror, taking a shower, waking up, I notice my body changing. Time’s effect on women’s bodies is typically not represented realistically and often not depicted at all. These Living self-portraits show my unretouched aging body. Highlighting the “flaws” that often are photographically or surgically removed: wrinkles, sags, veins, and age spots. These photos say: 'I’m still here! I’m LIVING.' " © Gail Rebhan

▲ "I make self-portraits as an act of self-connection, a way to be curious about myself and learn more about who I am and the way that I relate to the world around me." © Frances Bukovsky

▲ "Recently, I started doing self-portraits to tell a little bit of my story in pictures: my roots, my personality, from an artistic perspective. For the introverted person that I am, self-portraits allow me to get out of my comfort zone and I find that very rewarding." © Yvette Cakpo

▲ "I rarely set out with the intention to make a self-portrait, they come about in the moment and when I feel that pull I know it's a time I'm supposed to be documenting." © Jillian Guyette

▲ "Today, I am inundated with carefully curated images that make me feel alone because my world doesn’t look like a social media highlight reel. My self-portraiture documents my raw experience as a woman and a mother and dispels the stigmas of domestic motherhood and depression." © Carrie Usmar

▲ "I am inspired by the quiet moments in my life where seemingly nothing (and everything) occurs. For me, my hand within the frame is a marker of my presence and part of my process of building a memory. These images are pauses, moments of contemplation about my past, current, and future experiences." © Jennifer Long

▲ "Sometimes I feel like the only person who can portray how I feel in a photo is myself. As women, we hold so many complexities in who we are and I take self-portraits to try to understand my relationship with my body and what I find beautiful in myself. Self-portraits are an exploration for me, and I always end up loving something about myself when I’m finished whether that’s a feature of my body or the dedication I had to take the photo in the first place." © Emilia Zibaei

▲ "A self-portrait is often a tool for me to express where I am emotionally or spiritually in a visual way. It helps me makes sense of what I'm feeling or wrestling with, the experiences I'm having or the identity I'm exploring." © Jessica Uhler

▲ "I wanted to turn the camera on myself for once to try and show what it is to live with two chronic illnesses: Endometriosis and Elhers-Danlos Syndrome. That day was really difficult as a lot are with my conditions and I wanted to capture myself with the pain and the tiredness that it occurs." © Emma Boittiaux

▲ "Usually a movie, a song, or testing out a new technique." © Shirley Cruz

▲ "To express myself at the present moment, a self-portrait is a mark or a trace of me in the truest form because I'm capturing it. It is my own representation of how I see myself in a place, space, time, and mood." © Kimberly Maroon

▲ "I was my first subject when I first began photographing people in high school because I felt free to experiment without any expectations. I hadn't done any self-portraiture in many years, but when COVID hit and creative collaborations scaled back over safety concerns, I rediscovered the joy of turning the lens on myself." © Sabina Miklowitz

▲ "My self-portrait journey started about 7ish years ago. I wanted to play with light, colors, learning, posing, and not having access to models around, made me turn the camera to myself. But then the journey became more than that; it became about identity, it became about seeing myself, learning to be confident in my own skin, and seeing myself in all these different roles as a woman of color. It's been quite the self-healing journey for me." © Jyostna Bhamidipati

▲ "I make self-portraits as a way to document and contemplate my evolution as a human and artist." © Kaitlyn Dougher

▲ "The self-portrait is the advent of myself as other: a cunning dissociation of consciousness from my identity. Where I dissociate myself from the world, and where I get to see and feel my real self through the lenses." © Laura Parrales

▲ "I think it’s mainly the idea of self-preservation. As a woman, you take on several roles in life, the boss, the wife, the mother, and the daughter. I just don’t want to forget myself at the end of the day." © Julie Dickinson

▲ "Reflections are a double-edged sword, you have to be willing to accept that what you see through a mirror is, in essence, not who you really are. A self-portrait is a raw image of you; you're stripped of the faux-depiction given off of a reflective surface." © Tanya Leyva

▲ "We are only truly ourselves for that last three seconds before we school our faces to look in the mirror. Self Portraiture has been part of my healing journey for the last three years. You never forget the first time you truly see yourself in a photograph. What once began as a secret self-portrait journey with a tripod and my iPhone has transformed into a return to self-kindness and acceptance with all parts of myself finally at ease. They have also given me community, friendships, and creative growth. They have allowed me to become an educator, and mentor, and have been a highlight of my journey so far. I will never stop reaching for them when I need reconnection." © Lisa Haukom

▲ "I've always struggled with confidence, and self-portraiture has been a transformative tool to help me grow more comfortable in my skin. It's a very intimate method of self-expression and experimentation. It's in this space where I can really abandon any walls I may have up in my daily life and see what unfolds." © Jessica Flanigan

▲ "There is something revelatory about seeing myself in a photograph. With every self-portrait I take, I want to expose something that I have not seen before." © Josefina Fernandez Moran

▲ "I am inspired to self-photograph myself experiencing different moods, situations, and places." © Luciana Lopez Schütz

▲ "Self-portraits reveal exactly where I am at that moment, mentally, emotionally, I get the message. Whatever I produce in that moment is the product of raw emotions I feel, either good or bad, melancholic, excited, creative. I can’t fake it. My self-portraits throughout the years have been great reminders of the feelings that existed at that moment in my life, self portraits have given me the opportunity to explore, embrace and deeply feel who I am at various times." © Wenuola Ademodi

▲ "I feel the need to explore my femininity and document intercourse with my body. For many years I was disconnected from it, and now I see that it is there, that it fascinates me, that it's one of a kind, and that it makes me see myself as a beautiful, unique woman." © Marta Karkosa

▲ "My insecurities and body image issues drive me to photograph myself. It is healing to see my body as a work of art." © Mikayla Shuster

▲ "I captured this image after a rewarding multiple months of photoshoots about the Jersey Shore for Philadelphia Magazine. I had just had a call with the design director and learned I landed the cover for the issue. I was so thrilled and grateful I decided to take a moment to really enjoy where I was and set up my camera on a timer (balancing on a bench) and put myself in the frame." © Natalie Chitwood

▲ "The endless need to comprehend my identity through the safe space that is my camera lens." © Paola Ortega

▲ "Self-portraiture has been essential to photography continuing as my passion since becoming my profession. In commercial work, most of my time is spent planning and editing, with relatively little in production. My daily self-portrait project keeps picture-making very present in my life and allows me to explore a multitude of ideas that might never find a place in client work." © Sara Dilley

▲ "As a former dancer, self-portraiture is a way for me to get out visually the movement I often feel in my body. I use self-portraits as a way to capture my ideas for future projects but also to try out and explore new movements." © Louisa Wells

▲ "Like many people, I hated being in front of the camera for a long time. As I began working on more portraiture work, I practiced the same poses and comfortability I showed others in my self-portrait taking. I felt more comfortable taking my image than giving the task to someone else. These images I'm submitting today are unique because I got to take an opportunity to explore my identity and cultural background." © Yekaterina Gyadu

▲ "As a photographer, I am accustomed to being behind the camera and projecting my experiences and emotions through others. Through self-portraiture, I am learning to be comfortable with who I am and how I feel." © Rachel LeBlanc

▲ "Since becoming a mother, I find that often the only pictures I have of myself and of myself with my kids are the ones I take and that the experience and toll of motherhood are best shown through self-portraits." © Katie Ward

▲ "During the spring of 2020 I started making self-portraits with a specific mission in mind: to give a visible physical manifestation to my internal thoughts and feelings. But when I started sharing these photos with others I noticed that people were not just seeing me, they were also recognizing themselves and their own experiences in my images. I realized that self-portraiture can also be a tool for forging connections with others, and highlighting the sometimes hidden universality of our most isolating individual experiences." © Rebekah Barlas

▲ "We often see ourselves differently in our own heads. When you see a photo of yourself do you appreciate: the good, the bad, the past, and the present?" © Roo SaBell

▲ "I make self-portraits to remember myself as a part of this world, or of a particular landscape. To make an impression without leaving a trace. When I feel beautiful or simply overcome by feeling. I photograph myself because it's the most accurate possible depiction of myself as an unreliable narrator." © Sarah Bodri

▲ "I feel like I need to see myself to understand myself. For me, self-portraits are a type of self-love, where I distill how I am feeling at that time into a single frame, accepting everything as it is. I love documenting my changing self through my evolving skills as a photographer." © Veronica Melkonian

▲ "While working on my BeSeeingYou - projects on surveillance and privacy, I would often point my camera at the security cameras that were watching me. Looking at those photographs, I found myself intrigued by the reflections I could see on the glass. Especially my own." © Sheri Lynn Behr

▲ "Photography is a form of self-healing. The images produced are a vessel to hold my thoughts, emotions, and feelings. A physical space to discard and store the weaker portions of myself as I continually strive to evolve into a better person." © Shannon Maltbie Davis

▲ "I'm becoming aware of all the things I keep hiding when battling with my childhood trauma and sickness. I think the photographs I make are letting myself know that I'm now aware of my emotions and fears and I think that becoming aware of it, even after I've made the work, has become a huge step in my healing. And one of the things I have learned is that I don't have to go through this alone." © Veronica Cruz

▲ "I strive to depict feelings of insecurity, doubt, whimsy, and even joy authentically." © Susan Rosenberg Jones

▲"My self-portraits are my visual biography. The self-portrait is the way I express myself and the opportunity to free my image from a patriarchal gaze. For many years, women were represented from the male perspective. And for me, it is important that we recover our image." © Ursula Jahn