Celebrity Cruises Leads New Diversity Project with Help From Annie Leibovitz

Celebrity Cruises‘ All-Inclusive Photo Project creates a diversity-focused open-source image library, setting a historic touchpoint and example for other travel companies to follow.  

Vacationer Magazine started because there was a need to fill the void that many travel companies failed to see – diversity in the LGBTQ+ community and how we travel differently. And so, we applaud and support companies, like Celebrity Cruises, for executing DE&I initiatives to make us, and other marginalized groups, feel seen and represented.

Celebrity is launching its bold new initiative to recognize the need to improve the representation of all people who travel in marketing materials. The new-luxury cruise line has created both a new campaign and the world’s first free-to-use, ‘open source’ travel image library. The campaign and collection – The All-Inclusive Photo Project (AIPP) – aims to start a movement, calling on travel companies to help address the lack of diversity in travel marketing imagery. 

The stunning new images were unveiled today and feature the work of acclaimed photographers, including Annie Leibovitz. Other notable photographers bringing their talents to this ground-breaking project are Giles Duley, an English documentary photographer, and a triple amputee; Naima Green, a Black, queer New York-based photographer; and Jarrad Seng, an Australia-based photographer, filmmaker, and creative director of Malaysian-Chinese descent. 

The collection features models, musicians, athletes, artists, activists, refugees, and more – all changemakers in their own right from underrepresented groups, captured enjoying Celebrity’s ships and the destinations visited. 

Celebrity Cruises will make dozens of the images available via an open-source online library for other travel brands and companies to use to help kickstart their journeys towards more inclusive travel marketing. 

“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’,” said Michael Scheiner, chief marketing officer, Celebrity Cruises.

“For far too long, ‘all-inclusive’ in the travel industry has meant everything on your vacation is included in one price. We set out to challenge this conventional thinking by imagining the phrase through the lens of others,” said Lisa Lutoff-Perlo, president and CEO, Celebrity Cruises. “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.” 

Framed through the lenses of Leibovitz and the other AIPP photographers, the images feature more than 30 people – including queer changemakers – experiencing the wonder of travel. Here’s a quick sample of the photographers and some of the people featured in this groundbreaking campaign:

Photographed by Annie Leibovitz 

• Jillian Mercado is a professional model in the fashion industry with muscular dystrophy, photographed enjoying a new culinary experience on a Celebrity ship.

• John Forté – a Black recording artist who rose to stardom with multi-platinum hip-hop group The Fugees and now works with at-risk youth to deter them from drugs and crime – is captured making memories with his family on their first cruise ship sailing together. 

• Abby Chava Stein, the first openly transgender woman raised in a Hasidic community and a direct descendant of Hasidic Judaism’s founder, the Baal Shem Tov, is seen in a photo basking in the sunlight on the Resort Deck of a Celebrity Cruises ship. 

Photographed by Giles Duley 

• Tim and Sheehan are a recently engaged London-based couple who have been together for 24 years. Tim is a 64-year-old veteran publisher while Shaheen is the Co-Founder of an award-winning HR company. 

• Lexie and Aisha are a model couple known as The Queer Nomads. Lexie is the founder of Queer Weddings UK, the first company in the UK that plans and coordinates weddings for LGBTQ+ couples, while Aisha is the founder of Moonlight Experiences, serving queer culture and nightlife. They both also serve leadership roles at UK Black Pride

• Amy Conroy – pictured playing volleyball on the beaches of Spain – 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, U25 World Champion and MVP as well as the Senior World and European Silver Medalist. 

Photographed by Naima Green (Black queer New Yorker)

• Micah Ramos is a Filipino, non-binary model who loves being a catalyst for individuality, was photographed enjoying vacation time on a Caribbean Island.

• Carlo Martinez is an actor and LGBTQIA+ advocate with a passion for the arts and all things pop culture. He was photographed with his partner, Joel Vazquez enjoying a dip in the clear ocean water.

• Najja Moon is also featured in the AIPP campaign. He is an artist whose work explores the intersections of queer identity, the body and movement, black culture, and familiar relations both personal and communal.

Photographed by Jarred Seng

• Ester Onek is a social worker, advocate, and refugee from South Sudan, who made her way to Australia in 2003. Seng snaps a photo of her enjoying the beaches of Margaret River in Western Australia. 

• Jessie Stoelwinder and Em Williams – a married couple with a daughter – are also featured in the AIPP campaign seen enjoying a beachside picnic in one of their photos.

Celebrity Cruises will launch the AIPP collection as a dedicated brand advertising campaign in early April. 

The All-Inclusive Photo Project follows a global advertising campaign the brand introduced last September, called Journey WonderFULL, marking a distinctive and bold new approach for the new-luxury travel brand and the first major step to advance diversity and inclusivity in its own travel marketing with a wide range of diverse travelers depicted. 

Prior to the All-Inclusive Photo Project, Celebrity Cruises has long been an industry catalyst for change with barrier-breaking initiatives including an intentional effort in 2015 to attract more women to the maritime industry, at a time when only 2% of mariners were female. This effort led to the appointment of the first American female captain, Kate McCue; the first West African woman to work on the bridge of a cruise ship; the 2020 history-making all-female Bridge and Leadership team sailing; and the recent announcement that 32% of the brand’s Bridge officers are now women. Embracing same-sex marriages at sea and conducting the largest, annual Pride Party at sea; and it’s the first cruise line to eliminate 90% of single-use plastics across its fleet – Celebrity has been a clear trailblazer in the travel industry.

For more information on the photographers and talent featured in the AIPP campaign, consumers can visit www.celebritycruises.com/PhotoProject.

Travel brands and companies interested in accessing the AIPP library, which Celebrity Cruises will continue to add images over time, should visit the website for the All-Inclusive Photo Project.