Maailman ihanin tyttö

GIRL´S THOUGHTS:

“Being a model was far from everyday life. There were only the photographer, the camera and myself. It was free, different (I can’t describe how) and comfortable.”
“Posing for the camera felt bad and difficult because I was never given the chance to be the centre of attention before. But seeing the photos made me so happy: I was beautiful and special!”
“While posing for the camera I’m not thinking about how do I look in the eyes of the others but how do I look to myself and how do I feel in that very moment. How do I want to look in that picture.”
“A child or a teenager can see herself in the photos with new eyes and can see that the others see herself as a different person, too. The face can tell so much.”

“I don’t know what would be the most interesting thing in my photos. When I looked them I noticed some new expressions. Some belonged to me; some were totally strange to me.”
“Not that I wouldn’t like to be what I am, but that I could be something else, too.”
“I don’t see the photos as role play. I only see a cute inexperienced girl, who in fact has experienced more that expected.”
“The feeling of the pictures is fairytale-like because you can find love and peacefulness in them. These things are hard to find in real life. They have a sense of happiness in them.”
“Role-play? Not at all. On the contrary, in fact. I think that our pictures show for the very first time in my life who I really am. My soul is in these pictures."
“I think it’s been great to be involved in a project such big as this. I believe this is something so vast that it will help a lot of people in the future.”

“Without a doubt, a certain isolation as a child has affected my ability to trust and to get close to people. The “healing” only started after I moved to the Home. Having the photos taken really gave me the feeling of being “the loveliest girl in the world”. I still feel the same, even though the photo sessions are now over. I know that I’ll be ok.”

“I think nowadays people pay too much attention to outer beauty and compare it with the chick in the ad in the bus stop. I think everybody is beautiful as she is and everyone should feel special. The photo sessions changed what I think about outer and inner beauty. The inner has become much deeper and more genuine. That’s why it’s the most important, because everybody gets wrinkles one day!”

“It meant a whle 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.”

“The most important thing in this 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."

“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 don’t know.”

“When I look at my pictures I feel whole and strong."