The Loveliest Girl in the World

This lovely book is not just a book of beautiful images it is also a moving story of ten beautiful young girls living in a children's home in Helsinki. It is not often that I come across a book that touches me as deeply as "The Loveliest Girl In The World" by Miina Savolainen has. It is so beautiful yet the underlying story so sad I felt torn whether I should feel happy or sad. However, you soon realize that the courage and resilience of these ten young girls and the devotion of their mentor, author and photographer, Miina Savolainen is a story that must be told and their victory celebrated.

Petra Parvikoski

"For me everything was the most important part - the pictures and being together and everything we did there. I couldn't have done the photos with someone I didn't know."

Milla Makkonen "It meant a whole lot to me to see myself beautiful. In the children's home I didn't get the parental attention I needed. It has left a hole. I thought that anyone could abandon you, but not your own mother. And yet, that's just what happened. After losing so much you try to live so that you don't lose again. You live frugally. In the photos every one of the girls has been accepted just the way she is, as the princess of her own life. Every one is entitled to think about herself that way."

Jenna Pystö

"Posing for the camera felt really bad and even oppressive, since I was never given a chance to be the centre of attention before. But seeing the photos made me so happy - I was beautiful and special! When I look at my pictures I feel whole and strong."

Nina Laurin
"The most important thing in the project is that we showed a different side from what most people think. Of course it's been important for me that we've taken the pictures, but in the exhibition it's important that people can see something else as well."

Monna Makkonen
"I think that our pictures show for the very first time in my life who I really am. My soul is in these pictures."

The Loveliest Girl in the World is a joint photography project undertaken by photographer, art and social educator Miina Savolainen with ten girls from the Hyvönen Children's Home in Helsinki. It has taken almost a decade to complete, using the method of empowering photography that Minna Savolainen developed and teaches. The project is based on the concept of “empowerment” and the belief that everyone has the right to feel unique and special. The fairytale quality of the photographs reveals a truth often obscured by the rough and tumble of daily life - the person each young girl feels she really is inside. It allows the girls to regard themselves as strong and undamaged people. These photographs are deeply authentic, revealing the universal desire to be seen as good and valuable.

This fascinating, beautiful book is like an old- fashioned fairytale book with its hand-made graphics. The book includes over 140 colour pictures, of which many of them have never been published before. The pictures present Finnish nature amazingly beautiful. Every lovely girl has their own visual world in the book. It has been created by graphic designer Minna Luoma and printmaker Pia Lång. The book is hard-covered, thread-sealed and bilingual (Finnish & English).

International Conference On Phototherapy And Therapeutic Photography

Education of the method of empowering photography

Enjoy!

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©All photos property of Miina Savolainen and The Loveliest Girl In The World