Tom Stoddart

With a career spanning 50 years, the award-winning photojournalist Tom Stoddart is currently taking a comparative career break at his home in the north-east of England, mainly due to England’s rigid Covid lockdown regulations. However, with his latest book, his work is still very much in the public eye. Extraordinary Women: Images of Courage, Endurance and Defiance features over 200 images of the women he has encountered and photographed since the mid-1980s.

Stoddart has often come across women in conflict situations, in the midst of famines or natural disasters. “All through my career, there are so many times that you notice whenever there’s a problem – whether it’s a famine, HIV/Aids or an earthquake – it’s always the women who turn and face the situation,” he says. “They feed their families