Before you begin reading: lots of this may sound incredibly cliche and cheesy. But I promise you, it’s all genuine. Enjoy
My name is Lisa Modiano and I’m a hundred percent Italian, but my entire life has been an insane mix of countries and cultures - because my father works as a diplomat for the Italian embassy, we’ve moved country and sometimes even continent every four years. Only two months after I was born in Rome, we moved to Chile. Then came South Africa (where I first learnt English), Italy, and Argentina. I moved to London this August 2012 after the four most beautiful years of my life in Argentina, which I completely fell in love with and still miss dearly.
I belong to a huge, loud, crazy family of four kids (three brothers and me - two older and one younger) and two loving parents, who sadly separated two years ago after twenty years of a beautiful marriage. My parents have taught me everything I know and have given me an open, liberal mind and view on life, so I am forever grateful to the way they have raised us. We’re the type of family who debate at the dinner table every night and scream at each other to communicate, even if we’re not angry.
One of the biggest pleasures in my life is photography, which I have become obsessed with over the past three and a half years. It sound pretty cliché, since for the past four years or so, being into photography is the trend and the entire world now owns a professional camera. But nevertheless, I plan on devoting my entire life to taking beautiful photographs and recording my life that way. Whether I make money or not, I want to be able to say that I love what I do every day. Another huge passion of mine is fashion - living in London has only increased my passion for it, since the city is so full of incredible markets and fashion in general.
I absolutely adore old rock and Bob Dylan’s lyrics make me cry. I’m also obsessed with Lana Del Rey - I play her music on my family’s speakers as loud as possible and just listen. That’s all Lana can give you. Not an incredible performance, not an incredible dance. Just an amazing voice that can literally soak into your skin and make you feel like part of the music’s story. Another band I couldn’t live without is Pink Floyd, which my father introduced to me at four. I remember going to school and singing along to Brick in the Wall as loud as I could - and in May 2012 I finally got to see Roger Waters (the lead singer) in concert, which was one of the best experiences in my life.
Moving on. The three human beings who have inspired me the most are Nelson Mandela (my forever idol,) Charlie Chaplin, and Dr. Seuss. I love to travel. Summer is my favorite season. I like to wear baggy shirts and I like to be really tan, even though my mother tells me it’s unhealthy every five seconds during the summer. I like the smell of ocean salt. I like feeling sticky after the beach. I love natural light and the sky and most of the photographs I take are soaked in sunlight. I detest artificial light. I like neck kisses and hickies and I love laughing till I can’t breath. I love meeting new people, and I love feeling anonymous in a city I’ve never been to before. I love smoking shisha on wet grass with good friends. I love modern museums and I love bare white rooms, but I also love rooms crammed with tiny objects and photos and albums and cd’s. I believe in peace, freedom, and equality with all my heart and the one thing I cannot stand is racism and ignorance. I am an annoying feminist and I come from a left-winged family so I am also very liberal, socially and economically. I have a tattoo on the back of my neck, a Western African symbol that symbolizes Unity in Diversity.
I believe that education is essential, but I also believe that school is fucking stupid because we are forced to study things we have no interest in and we are prepared for a life of phoniness. However, I love English, history, and love to write and read. I could not be worse in math, and I hate anything to do with numbers. I think I have a bizarre type of intelligence, because I’m not necessarily “school smart” even though I don’t do poorly in school. I think I just understand the world and understand people in general, more than I understand myself. I have problems understanding my own thoughts and my own happiness, but I think it is better that way. I like to run away in my own mind and confuse myself with things I will never understand.
Overall, I’m an incredibly sensitive, creative, frank (gets me into trouble a lot) and intense person in general. I speak my mind too much and I’m sometimes selfish, which gets people hurt. On the other hand, I’m trustworthy and fall in love with people’s talents and flaws and eyes and minds. I like pure people who aren’t necessarily school smart - but open minded and intelligent. Just intelligent. I wouldn’t know how to explain what I mean by that. But if you are intelligent, you know what I’m talking about.
Thank you for reading.
