Who am I? I am Lisa von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn, and yes, I know that the name is exceptionally long.  My background is, to put it into a few words, diverse and manifold. I was born and raised in a multilingual region of Italy in the North East called South Tyrol and have spent most of my life here.  Thanks to my parents, travelling and seeing the world was always part of my life even when I was little. So, it wasn’t a big surprise that I kept going by myself when I was old enough. I spent a year in the South of England, three years in the North West of England and after that a year in Germany. I never knew when I was going to come home up until the point when I felt that it was the right time. When I came home, it felt like the right thing to do. 

Nevertheless, the list of places I want to see doesn’t get shorter whatsoever. My absolute number one is Canada, since I was ten years old and I hope, I will get to check it off the list soon. 

It’s those things you pick up on when you’re at a wedding for me. Those things that you pick up on without having met most of the people there before. You see and feel the raw essence of people’s emotions and you take them in without any filter. It’s not uncommon for me to shed a tear or two when granny walks up to her granddaughter’s new husband with her walking stick and gives him a kiss on the cheek. Those moments mean so much to me and I really see it as a privilege to be able to be part of something meaningful like this and, even better, capture it. That’s exactly why it is important to me, it is important to you as well. Bringing back old photo albums, rummaging through a box filled with loose pictures and just remembering – the moments you can relive through this. It’s not just pictures but also old movies, a song, or even perfume that bring back certain memories, impressions and feelings to me. The past is the past yet thinking back still can be like an adventure to me. That’s why I find it hard to let go of things. Not the big, materialistic things. The little things. That letter you got from your friend. That old note, that handmade bookmark. I love to live life to its fullest, still, I can be nostalgic!

When I was little, I spent most of my time planning out my life. I picked the country I wanted to move to. I drew up the house I wanted to live in. I found the animals I wanted to have by my side. I did all of that with exact precision (so precise, that I wrote down the names for the sheep that were going to live on my farm in Australia. One thousand names, one for each sheep). Those projects still make me excited and happy but I stopped planning every aspect of my life. If you ask me, nothing you plan is going to happen exactly as you planned it. Life happens while you’re busy planning it. That’s why I started to put all of my ideas and impressions on paper and now I have at least one writing project going at any given time. There’s just so many stories to tell! That’s another reason, why I love photography so much. One picture is an excerpt from a book that you’re skimming through and that’s why I want to capture you and your love exactly as it is. Your pictures should tell how the story goes on.