A community celebrating Black voices Beautycon is a global platform that brings together beauty enthusiasts and industry leaders to explore the latest trends and conversations shaping the future of beauty She studied photography at the Lutheran University of Brazil in Canoas - RS Dorr's photographs have been published in CNN Photo Blog Her photographic work focuses on the genre of portraiture and seeks to address its contemporary aspects In 2015 Dörr was selected for the LensCulture Emerging Talent and one of the PDN Emerging Photographer She is currently represented by VII Photo Agency as part of the Menor Program and continuous to be based in Sao Paulo I began to study graphic design for 3 years when I finished high school I moved to Porto Alegre and started studying my passion My Place about Brazil’s models in the south of the country I finished my academic studies in two years while working as an assistant in an advertising studio I moved to Sao Paulo in 2013 to work as a cultural producer in a renowned company involved with photography called “Estudio Madalena” I worked there during one year - I had no idea of how to work in production - but I learned a lot that year and met many people In your previous projects based in Brazil you have focused on women's topics How did you decide to take this shift specifically focusing on a community This female recurrence is connected with events of my past: my father was always absent so my role model has always been my mother it comes to be close to what I'm interested in intimacy and identity Is it widely known in Brazil that Itabaianinha holds what is considered the city with the largest population of dwarves in the world but the calculation is between 70 and 150 dwarfs with about 25 times more than the national average… From looking at your photographs I get a sense that the dwarves are not excluded in their community in Itabaianinha I went to Itabaianinha in March 2015 and spent three days to do the first contact because in order to do a great work it is necessary to invest time to gain the trust of the people They feel "less than us" because of height but from the people that go to see them (journalist Some Brazilians television programs go to Itabaianinha to do comedy shows with the dwarfs I feel that this work can build “a new perspective of their lives” I started looking on Facebook for people that live in Itabaianinha Nobody answered until Sergio Oliver accepted my request We started to talk and he seemed interested and decided to help me When I arrived to Aracaujo the capital of Sergipe During the road trip I made a friend from the city there is a snack bar and a hotel from a dwarf I went to that bar and asked for a hot dog and started to talk with the dwarf Sergio (from facebook) joined me 2 hours after I had arrived Sergio picked me up early in the morning since you can only work in early hours of the day or at dusk due to the high temperatures We walked around and talked to people… Building the trust wasn’t easy at the end of the day I went to a dwarves football match… We spent the day around Itabaianinha and at the end of the day we went to Adalberto’s bar to have a drink with our subjects.. We left early the followed morning - it was like this so fast and so good - I really miss Itabaianinha What are your future plans with this project in progress I really hope to go there this year to finish the work photography can bring much more than good photographs bring out a more open and empathetic person from me and hopefully a critical dialog with the society To learn more about this project, visit Luisa's PHmuseum profile He struggled with alcoholism and stopped drinking three months ago after having an accident that nearly cost him his life treated about twenty children suffering from genetic mutation The treatment is free and guarantees a normal height A rural village in northern Brazil is home to a population of Lilliputian residents who have spurred public and scientific fascination In 2010, a group of researchers led by Johns Hopkins professor Dr. Roberto Salvatori published the results of more than a decade of research into the dwarf community of Itabaianinha Salvatori said he first heard of the population in the 1990s when CNN Brazil did a report on the rural area with an unusually high rate of dwarfism Since then, the population has drawn the attention of the media, and they appear regularly in segments like this where the host tracks down Itabaianinha’s smallest woman on Brazilian TV the professor and his team decided to research whether or not the human growth hormone extends life as some in the medical community had been touting They studied 65 dwarfs who hailed from Itabaianinha along with 128 of their siblings who were not impacted by dwarfism What they found was that life expectancy for the dwarves of Itabaianinha The previous belief was that those without the enough HGH to grow to normal height suffer shorter lifespans and that injections of the hormone could be a way to tap into the fountain of youth “People that lack growth hormone have high cholesterol, have increased abdominal obesity, and have all the known factors for heart disease,” Salvatori told the Toronto Star. you think if that’s true they would die early because they have all the risk factors associated with atherosclerosis But when we compared their life expectancy their longevity is the same as normal people in the area once they reach adulthood.” He also found there was no difference in quality of life for those of shorter stature possibly because of the prevalence in the area “It happens that people ask me if I’m not disgusted in the way I am. I say ‘No!’” an elderly woman told filmmakers for a short documentary on the town published on Narratively “If God made me this way why should I be ashamed?” the city was once known in Brazil as “A cidade dos anóes,” or “The city of dwarfs.” Spurred along by inter-family marriage the abnormality was passed through generations the city’s younger residents began receiving injections of a growth hormone as part of a new treatment offered in São Paulo At the time it was only available to those 15 years and younger those with dwarfism are an aging population including the 72-year-old twin sisters featured in the film Itabaianinha isn’t the only place that has acquired such a Tolkien-esque nickname for its small population Entrepreneurs haven’t let this fascination with small populations go to waste. In 2009, a Chinese businessman tapped into the market for a dwarf city by creating his own. He is opening a controversial theme park fully staffed by little people entertainers “There are only three requirements to work here,” Cheng Mingjing told ABC’s Nightline soon after its opening the frenzy around dwarfism turns out to be just as mythical as the stories that spur on public interest Ten years ago, smugglers unearthed a mummy in the Iranian region of Shahdad that was only 9 inches tall, setting off a wave of excitement that the area was once home to a short people The discovery site was quickly nicknamed Shahr-e Kotouleha, or City of Dwarfs, but initial excitement was later disproven by archaeologists who chided the rampant speculation and let it be known that the mummy was just a premature baby Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast here Nina Strochlic is a former reporter and researcher for The Daily Beast.Send her a tip: tips@thedailybeast.com. You can also use our anonymous document submission system, SecureDrop. Click here to find out how