If you could press your ear against the warm stone walls of the 11th-century castle near where Danielle Campani grew up, I wonder what you’d hear? Perhaps the voice of the Italian noblewoman, Matilda di Canossa, who once lived there whispering from the past. Telling you to be brave and kind and if at all possible, eat more Parmigiano cheese. 

Dani does her best to live by those words.

She has spent months clinging to the sides of rock faces in Europe and South America, baked injera bread in Ethiopia, and serenaded a bear with a ukulele on the banks of a Squamish river. Dani has taught yoga classes, poured her love into a backyard garden and danced salsa with the locals in Monterrey, Mexico, and every Christmas; she feasts on her Nonno’s tortellini with, you guessed it, lashings of Parmigiano on top.

Dani’s hunger for life experiences is matched only by her passion for photography.

She is enamoured with the natural beauty and humans of her British Columbia backyard but frequently shoots abroad. Her images and film work have been featured in magazines and festivals like the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival and she has created visual stories for Tourism Langley, Saba Cafe and Bistro, Kawoq Forest, Amble Journeys, Moja Coffee Roasters, Monte Orada, Cabana Drinks and School Institute of Yoga to name a few. Dani’s volunteer work includes photographing for HOPE International, the Downtown Eastside Women’s Shelter, Wagner Hills and the SurfRider Foundation.

Matilda of Canossa would be proud.