Photographers including Annie Leibovitz launch campaign to change the meaning of ‘all-inclusive’ break to ‘all are welcome’, with striking images of minority groups on holiday
- The ‘All-Inclusive Photo Project’ will offer free-to-use photos of underrepresented groups on holiday
- Taken by world-famous photographers, the images feature models who are ‘change-makers’
- The campaign wants to ‘improve the representation of all people who travel in marketing materials’
A new initiative by a group of world-renowned photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, has been launched calling on travel companies to change the meaning of ‘all-inclusive’.
The campaign, in partnership with Celebrity Cruises, aims to steer the travel industry’s notion of the phrase away from ‘a holiday where everything is included in one price’ to one that signals ‘everyone is welcome’. To this end, the campaign wants to ‘improve the representation of all people who travel in marketing materials’.
To help travel companies ‘kickstart their journeys towards more inclusive travel marketing’ it has launched the world’s first free-to-use ‘open source’ travel image library – the ‘All-Inclusive Photo Project’ (AIPP) – which contains striking images from Leibovitz and the other photographers of underrepresented groups enjoying offerings on Celebrity’s ships and within the destinations visited.
Above is Leibovitz’s striking photo of Abby Chava Stein, an American transgender author, activist, blogger, model, speaker and rabbi, relaxing by the pool on the Resort Deck of Celebrity Apex
The collection features models, musicians, athletes, artists, activists, refugees and more, ‘all change-makers in their own right’.
Alongside New York-based portrait photographer Leibovitz, photographers involved in the project include Giles Duley, an English documentary photographer and disability campaigner who became a triple amputee while working in conflict zones; Naima Green, a New York-based photographer known for challenging preconceptions of race, gender and sexuality; and Jarrad Seng, an Australia-based photographer of Malaysian-Chinese descent.
The image library features Jillian Mercado, a model and wheelchair user with muscular dystrophy in the plush dining room of a cruise ship; recording artist and former Fugees collaborator John Forte enjoying a cruise with his family; and Abby Chava Stein, the author, activist and first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community snapped lounging next to the pool – all photographed by Leibovitz.
Other models in the gallery include Micah Ramos, a Filipino, non-binary model photographed by Green enjoying holiday time on a Caribbean island, and Amy Conroy, who was diagnosed with cancer at age 12 and after a year of chemotherapy and a leg amputation, went on to play wheelchair basketball for Great Britain as a three-time Paralympian. She’s photographed by Duley playing volleyball in Spain.
Seng, meanwhile, took a picture of Ester Onek, a social worker, advocate, and refugee from South Sudan enjoying the beaches of Margaret River in Western Australia.
‘What Annie and all of the talented artists involved in this project have captured so beautifully, is that for vacations to really live up to the marketing moniker ‘all-inclusive,’ then they should start by using images that are inclusive of all, not just a few,’ said Celebrity Cruises President and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo.
Lutoff-Perlo continued: ‘We want our marketing – as with everything we do as a cruise line – to represent how the world looks, and what we experience on our ships daily, as guests and crew from all walks of life work and play together to create a really special onboard environment.’
Michael Scheiner, Celebrity Cruise Chief Marketing Officer, added: ‘As global brands, we have a powerful platform to act as a catalyst of positive change. We know we have more work to do and we hope we inspire others to join us on this important journey. By leveraging our collective travel industry might, we can begin to make travel marketing truly “all-inclusive”.’
The AIPP collection, which Celebrity Cruises aims to add to over time, is due to officially launch in early April.
For more information on the campaign, visit www.celebritycruises.com/PhotoProject. Travel brands and companies interested in accessing the AIPP library can visit www.allinclusivephotoproject.com.