We’re used to seeing formal portraits and press shots of politicians, but the 209 Women photos are entirely different: intimate, natural and relaxed, not stiff or intrusive. Labour MP Alison McGovern says that diversity of the portraits reflect the range of women currently working in UK politics and photography.

“The works will show that women can and ought to be portrayed in all their diversity,” she says. “There is no one way to be a woman artist, to be a woman politician, to be a woman.”

McGovern adds: “The women’s movement has never been about one person’s achievement: it is about all of us. This project carries out that vision, including all kinds of women from all kinds of backgrounds. It is a subtle but very true statement of equality.”

The 209 Women exhibition has the backing of the Royal Photographic Society and Liverpool City Council. After being displayed in Westminster until February 2019, it will travel to the Open Eye Gallery in Liverpool, to be exhibited in partnership with Culture Liverpool.

Check out the photographs already created as part of the 209 Women project on Instagram, and support the project here.

Stylist’s Visible Women campaign aims to raise the profiles of women in politics – and inspire future generations to follow their lead. See more Visible Women stories here.

This exhibition will celebrate the UK’s female MPs – and you can help make it happen