Doortraits: Beautiful Doors of the World (PHOTOS)

Some people look up at the ceilings to take in the architecture, others look down at the detailed mosaic floors. Sometimes, we find ourselves looking straight ahead, as if looking at art in a museum. But for many Instagrammers, doors can be the perfect photography subject.

Soraya Ben Hadj runs the Instagram account @doorseverywhere, which has more than 500 photos dedicated to doors or “doortraits” from different places. The feed proves that no door is the same.

Ben Hadj began her photo journey in Paris. “After a hard day at work, in August 2015, I felt the need to walk in Paris’ streets just to relax and change my mind,” she told weather.com. “I took a photo of a door and since that very moment, I never stopped.” She ended up spending three hours walking through Paris and with 50 photos. “After that, I realized that I was feeling better and more quiet.”

Doors have a particular significance to Ben Hadj. Having grown up in Tunisia, a North African country that borders the Mediterranean Sea, Ben Hadj said that doors remind her of her origins. Tunisia is known for its crafts and beautiful doors, which are often painted in a bright blue and exhibit studded ironwork. Each door has a unique story to tell.

“Closed doors might seem to be negative for some people, but not for me,” she said. “In my opinion, each door is a kind of invitation… to imagine what is hidden behind and what kind of people are living there. Like a kind of secret one could discover.”

At first, Ben Hadj came across these picturesque doors by chance. However, she now organizes her walks to find specific doors. “When I want to take some pictures in Paris, I prepare it the week before by searching the web for interesting architecture, and then I launch Google Street View to identify potential interesting doors,” she said. Every two months, Ben Hadj travels to enrich her collection of doortraits. Her most recent trip was to Venice in November and she plants to visit Prague, Denmark, Spain and Ireland.

Some of her favorite doors come from Tunisia, specifically the architecture and colors from Sidi Bou Saïd, a small village that hangs over the sea. Their signature white and blue colors remind Ben Hadj of the sun and the sea. “It gives to the village a very warm and peaceful atmosphere.” Burano Island near Venice also makes her list of nicest doors.

Though Ben Hadj has a preference for colored doors, she has no “bias” towards doors without color. “But I am more attracted by the ones that [have] something indefinable, as the light, someone walking in front of it, something broken, or just tree leaves,” she said. “Something that makes me say, ‘I need to shoot the door and I want to share it!.’”