American Women: 15 Windows Into Inspiring Women Across the Country

Last summer we decided to markVogue’s 125th birthday by photographing American women coast to coast. Our intention was to celebrate the extraordinary diversity of style, enterprise, and values (in every sense) that defines us today. We asked the photographers we admire most to shoot communities that we (and they) found riveting. Commissioned and curated by our Visual Director, Suzanne Shaheen,American Womencame to encompass 15 portfolios of video and portraiture on subjects as diverse as salmon fisherwomen in Alaska and service members stationed at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu. Every person photographed for this project is captivating, dynamic, gorgeous . . . that is, everythingVoguehas presented, and represented, for 125 years.

There is nothing in what follows that was intended as a response to the presidency of Donald Trump or to the women’s movement that has gained force in its wake. And yet, so much has changed since we began initial photography, and so quickly. The camps at Standing Rock have been razed. Families fear deportation of their friends and loved ones. Notions of race and educational opportunity are debated on Twitter. Sexuality, religion, ecology, nationality . . . everything seems in transition or under attack depending on where you stand on the political spectrum. Some of these women must feel safer since the election, and for others it’s quite the opposite. No doubt if these images could speak, we would hear many points of view.

From our point of view, the objective was always beauty: diverse, unfiltered, and breathtaking. Big league.

—Sally Singer

How the Women of the White House Press Corps Are Navigating “Fake News” and “Alternative Facts”

photographed by Alex Majoli

The Brave Faces of a New Generation of Women on the Frontlines

, photographed by Jackie Nickerson (left),Why America Needs Beauty Pageants in Immigrant Communities

, photographed by Benjamin Rasmussen (right)

Two Moms, Two Kids: An Intimate Portrait of the New American Family

, photographed by Cass Bird

The Water Protectors at Standing Rock: “Our People Are a Matriarchal Society”

photographed by Alessandra Sanguinetti (left),A Crash of Cultures: Documenting Mennonite Women in Pennsylvania

, photographed by Bella Newman (right)

How L.A. Chicano History Is Being Told—And Reclaimed—Through Fashion

, photographed by Stefan Ruiz

Factories and Families: How Women Power Middle America

, photographed by Daniel Arnold (left),What Does It Take To Be America’s Rodeo Queen?

photographed by Charlie Engman

What the Women at NASA Have Planned for the 2030s

, photographed by Jonas Bendiksen (left),These Women in the Arts Don’t Take No For an Answer

, photographed by Lorna Simpson (right)

Muslim Women on Keeping the Faith

, photographed by Lynsey Addario

The Enduring Legacy of America’s First African-American Sorority

, photographed by Mayan Toledano (left),This Is What Real California Girls Look Like

, photographed by Deanna and Ed Templeton

For Alaskan Women, Fishing Is Not Just a Job—It’s a Way of Life

, photographed by Evgenia Arbugaeva

(Vouge)