Celebrity Cruises Partners with Annie Leibovitz, Renowned Photographers in Project That Recognizes Diversity in Travel

(8:01 a.m. EDT) -- Celebrity Cruises has set out to better reflect the diverse reality of travel, creating the first open-source travel photo library focused on images that represent the diversity in travel. 

The cruise line's new campaign and initiative, titled the All-Inclusive Photo Project, features stunning shots captured by world-renowned photographers, including Annie Leibovitz, several who are allies and members of frequently marginalized and underrepresented groups in travel imagery. 

Celebrity President and CEO Lisa Lutoff-Perlo said in a statement that the AIPP sets out to challenge the traditional meaning of "all-inclusive" in travel "by imagining the phrase through the lens of others." 

"What Annie and all of the talented artists involved in this project have captured so beautifully," she continues,"is that for vacations to really live up to the marketing moniker 'all-inclusive', they should start by using images that are inclusive of all, not just a few."

For the Celebrity campaign this meant turning the camera away from traditionally represented groups, namely white travelers without visible disabilities, to create an image library that more accurately represents the widespread diversity of travelers. 

"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," Lutoff-Perlo added,"as guests and crew from all walks of life work and play together to create a really special onboard environment." 

Celebrity's AIPP catalog debuted today with a collection of 104 images from photographers Leibovitz, Giles Duley, Naima Green and Jarrad Seng, featuring colorful snaps of artists, musicians, influencers, models, athletes and more set on board Celebrity ships and within a handful of the cruise line's destinations. The marketing images, which feature a breadth of travelers of various shapes, sizes, skin colors, ethnicities, sexual orientations, cultures, disabilities and more, are likely to be a much-welcomed change for unrepresented groups who rarely, if ever, see themselves in travel marketing materials. 

"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," Celebrity Cruises Chief Marketing Officer Michael Scheiner said. "By leveraging our collective travel industry might, we can begin to make travel marketing truly 'all-inclusive'." 

As part of their effort to jumpstart the all-inclusive across the industry, Celebrity has made its AIPP library open-source, meaning the images will be available, free of charge, to any travel companies or media that wish to use them.