For centuries the art world was seen through the eyes of a small few who, in a patriarchal society, chose the aesthetic and the narrative, and whose main depiction of the sacred female body was as an objectified and sexualised woman. Delphine Diallo aims to change this dynamic: she wants every woman she photographs to feel that the image is a personal gift, and says she is not taking pictures but giving them. Through intimate conversations with her subjects she removes the vulnerability that often comes with being photographed, and working with body painters and with jewellery and mask makers she uses traditional mythology and spiritual symbols to empower them; the French-Senegalese photographer spends more time speaking with her subjects than photographing them. Her portraiture is about connection and exchange, portraying women beyond judgment and soaking up their limitless beauty, drawing on eastern mythology and philosophy and reminiscent of nineteenth-century Oriental painting, with Krishnamurti, Frantz Fanon, Joseph Campbell, Bruce Lee, Aime Cesaire and A.D. Wilson among her sources of inspiration. The pictures show painted faces and bodies, gold-leaf skin, striped masks and tall headdresses.