1. Jodi Cobb By: Stacey L. Sutton Photographer

2. Jodi Cobb But Cobb is more than an explorer of the globe. She is an explorer of ideas, using her camera to ask important questions – to make us think carefully about the human condition in an increasingly interconnected world. As a long-time staff and freelance photographer with National Geographic, Cobb developed an international following for her stirring, visually powerful work. Today she brings her incomparable experience to a variety of freelance advertising and photojournalism assignments, and devotes her time to teaching and lecturing around the world. Jodi Cobb has always been an explorer. Before turning twelve, she had been around the world twice; since then, her career has led her to work in more than sixty countries…some unfriendly, many of them secretive, all of them alluring to Cobb’s curious and adventurous nature.

3. Miss Universe, Hawaii, 1998 What is beauty? How is it perceived in cultures around the world? And to what lengths do we go to enhance it, preserve it, flaunt it and fake it?

4. Louisiana Swoop, Georgia, 1998 Child beauty pageant contestant sports the distinctive hairstyle-the Louisiana Swoop- on her way to the competition.

5. Pageant Child, Georgia, 1998 Young beauty emerges from her motel room on her way to compete.

6. A beautiful young geisha in her prime, in full makeup and costume. A geisha shows a trace of red under-kimono which is considered subtly erotic.

7. Bound Foot, China, 1998 The Chinese bound their women’s feet for a thousand years, and although outlawed in 1949, the older women still bear the pain of the mutilation. Very rare to see a foot unwrapped-even husbands prefer the mystery of the tiny feet to the reality.

8. Bedouin woman, south of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; by Jodi Cobb, whose photos were featured in the October, 1987 National Geographic article, "Women of Saudi Arabia."

9. Ai Lov You, Italy, 2003 A greeting card disguised as a newspaper proclaims the sender’s affections as the recipient opens it in a cafe in Florence.

10. Costume Competition, Venice, 2008 Contestants Crowd the stage in Piazza San Marco to compete for the best costume prize. They spend thousands of dollars on their costumes and rivalry is fierce.

11. Carnival Fantasy, Venice, 2008 Tourists from all over the world gather in Venice for Carnival, bringing costly, elaborate costumes for every night of the ten-day event. They play out their fantasy in the windows of the Cafe Florian, while ordinary tourists gather outside to gawk in a scene straight from a Dickens novel.

12. Life in a Cage Surekha has spent much of her life in this four-by-six-foot brothel cell in Mumbai, India. She sleeps, prepares her meals, and stores her few possessions here – and this is where she serviced the customer who infected her with HIV.

13. Victim, Kathmandu, 2002 A young woman makes it to a shelter and tells her story, weeping.

14. Photo of Jodi Cobb courtesy of Missouri School of Journalism, Columbia, Mo. (July 11, 2012), 2012 Recipients of the Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism Announced http://blogs.ngm.com/blog_central/ng-revisited/Women Photographers in the Middle East, Posted Apr 5,2011, Posted by Anne Marie Houppert “Life in a Cage” – Courtesy of National Geographic Magazine Sept 2003, 21 st -Century Slaves Biography and all other photos not specifically listed courtesy of www.jodicobb.com