Photographing LGBTQIA + Pride in Modena does not represent an artistic epiphany in my life as a photographer. I didn’t look for the perfect photograph to tell the event, I didn’t even try to tell the parade.

I honestly don’t like parades. I avoid the Carnival parades like the plague, but not because of the floats or the mess they bring, but simply for the medieval meaning they represent.

Today, on the other hand, I photographed the Modena Pride because I hope that one day there will be no need for a parade to claim the universal right to respect and freedom of sexual expression. The right to be who we want, the right to love who makes us happy, the right to call a family, whoever we have chosen and who chooses us. ALL OF US!

The freedom and the right to be mothers and fathers regardless of who we love.

I always hear the word “natural” when it comes to family, love. But the truth is that the “natural” IS love. IN ALL ITS FORMS. WHY GENUINE LOVE, NOT ALTERED LOVE, IT IS NATURAL.

We have opted for the word “natural” to redirect the forms of love, family and life that are not congenial to an antiquated and worn-out thought.

We are constantly evolving because we are natural (because we are part of the nature) but at the same time we fear evolution because it reminds us that we are STILL part of an animal species and that in order to survive we need to evolve.

Ok, I could go on and on for hours and hours to exemplify that the preconceived idea of ​​the family as just a “woman / man” nucleus should not be part of our society.

I, Lavinia, want to live in a society where the family consists of two or more people of any sex. That the family does not necessarily mean having children. That it’s also a family who lives together with only just another animal.

ALL OF US ARE FREE, EQUAL AND NATURAL!

So today I photographed the LGBTQIA + Pride because I think that love is the most natural thing there is.

Love is not something that we invent, something that we decide or that we can control. Love is like art, a force that enters our life without any rule, without any limitation. And love, like art, must always be FREE!

We live in a world that distrust feelings. Over and over we are reminded that feelings are less important than reason!
But feelings count! When they are as small as when I smell the dough for the cozonac and I think of my grandmother, to her caresses that smelled of fresh dough. When they are infinite, like when I kissed Filippo for the first time and a swarm of butterflies broke free in my stomach, and they continue to fly even now, after so many years.
Because if you are lucky, really lucky, a feeling will come one day and overwhelm you and change your whole world as you knew it. And I want all of us to be free to let ourselves be carried away without shame, without labels, without hiding: WITHOUT FEAR!

And that’s why I’m “Proud to go to Modena Pride” today !

Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Art. 2

Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

Modena’s Major, Gian Carlo Muzzarelli, spoke about the human rights.