[Lecture / Panel]
The Loveliest Girl in the World

About This Event

Open from Friday to Sunday 11 a.m. –4 p.m. Free entrance

The creator of the exhibit, artist and social educator Miina Savolainen will guide visitors through the exhibition October 22 – 23 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Artist Miina Savolainen will discuss the touching story of the project with an introduction to the method of empowering photography.

The Loveliest Girl in the World – Children’s homes do not house problem youth, but fairies

The most successful Finnish photography project of all time is on display in Washington, D.C. from October 19 to November 13, 2011, courtesy of the Embassy of Finland in United States. The exhibition is part of the Foto Week DC and EuroKids festivals and arrives in Washington as a part of its North and South American tour.

The Loveliest Girl in the World can be seen in its entirety at the Embassy of Finland. The exhibit comes from Ottawa, Canada and it will continue to New York, Mexico City and Santiago de Chile as part of its first international tour outside Europe. Finland and the first female ambassador of Finland in United States, Mrs. Ritva Koukku-Ronde, host the exhibition to stress the importance of gender equality and empowerment of women and girls.

The Loveliest Girl in the World is a photography project unique in scope, realized by artist Miina Savolainen who portrayed ten girls growing up in a children’s home. The overlooked and mistreated girls were photographed on their own terms in order for the girls and those around them to appreciate their worth. The idea for the project was borne out of Miina Savolainen ́s understanding that verbal communication was not a sufficient tool to heal children whose trust had been broken with words.

Everyone is entitled to feel precious and beloved

The Loveliest Girl in the World exhibit is a touching coming-of- age story of marginalized children becoming visible and discovering their self-acceptance. In the photos the girls could see themselves as whole and valuable. Mythical nature in the photos appears as the protector of wounded children. The photos impart a simple yet powerful idea: Everyone is entitled to feel precious and beloved.

Behind the more than 120 chromogenic color photographs developed personally by the artist are 70,000 frames and more than 200,000 kilometers of driving to stunningly beautiful locations in Finland – woods and fields blanketed with snow, smouldering forest fire sites, a still lake in a summer’s night – places to make one see the world around us differently.

Empowering photography, borne out the project, has been used in Finland in therapy, education and workplace development since the year 2000. This award-winning social innovation developed by Savolainen elevates the exchange of a gaze into a tool for dialogic interaction and workplace improvement. The method reverses the balance of power between the photographer and the subject by creating a process of dialogue and transforming the photograph into an instrument of self-discovery.

Miina Savolainen is a community-art photographer from Helsinki whose works deal with social engagement. In the past, she has examined fatherhood in its different forms and is currently working on a community art project involving intersexed and transgendered individuals. She has educated more than 3,000 professionals in Finland to apply the method of empowering photography in social work, health care and education.