model citizen >>> ilaria paci

Who is Ilaria Paci?
Ilaria is a curious, atypical girl: she loves to travel, meet people, and her work. At the same time, she prefers a good book and a glass of wine to a night at the disco.

At the same time she love her country, so (when work leaves me some time), you can easily find Ilaria in the central Tuscany, relaxing herself. Fundamentally Ilaria is a very simple girl. She’s me!

Why modeling?
The idea was not mine: when at primary school I was 5" taller than my friends. Everybody joking me by calling me Pippi for my long legs. I cried for years, desperately wanting to be like other kids.

When I turned eleven years old (I was 5’6" at that time) a teacher told to me that I could turn out to be a real fashion model. A month later I was at a school to learn how to walk and move for the camera and do fashion shows. I did my first work at 12. From that moment on, modeling became my job and my life.

Is art important to you?
An important question: now that the globalization movement makes efforts to produce images without personality, adaptable to Japanese as French without any change. To have the same image to promote the same product at the lowest price almost ever mean to loose the "art quart" of a photo.

I like to be a part of the creative phase of photography, even as "spectator", to understand what a photographer want. Whenever possible I like to see every photo before the customer, "playing it again" if something is wrong, and even for free. It’s a habit very appreciated by photographers that sometimes call me to talk about works, frequently with the final client of the image.

What is your most important goal in life?
I have not a single goal to reach in my life. At my age I prefer to not make long time plans.

Later in my life I aspire to be a fashion photographer or any other job that permit me to remain in this market.

How has your experience with Citroën Italia made you a better model?
In this work, for the first time, a photographer let me be a part of the image creation process. It was a very delicate work: the first nude calendar for Citroën from the 1924 (Pierre Louyis) edition, the art part of the product is very, very important. In this experience I’ve worked strictly with a clever stylist as Roberto Baciocchi, author of much of the Prada architectural style, ad an exceptional photographer as Maurizio Marini. Three months of work and something like 1000 shots to make a work that I still believe perfect.

If you could have just one wish; what would it be?
You really mean that I could ask for everything? Well: I want that people stop any war activity in the whole world. Every time that I think of the Iraqi people, I feel myself absolutely unuseful.

If you can meet anyone, living or dead, who would you meet and why?
Without a doubt, I wish I would had met Ansel Adams. I have seen most everything about him, from the technical manuals to many various biographies. There are still till too many questions that I would have asked about him and his work that would have no answer. An exceptional photographer: a "silver painter".

What is the biggest misunderstanding about you?
Not only for me: the "categorization" that affect any model in the whole world: when people think about a fashion model, immediately see a young girl attracted only by furs or fast cars. Maybe it can be true for a small group of girls, but I can assure you that most of the models who do the work I do, have a very good head over their shoulders.

Who have been some of your main influences as a model and as a person?
All the people that I had worked with for the last three years: the whole Citroën staff, photographers, technicians and all the people that work with me, teaching me all that I actually know about my job. I try to be myself modeling, of course a model must act roles of different characters: from the "femme fatale" to the dirty clochard, but every time I make the effort to put something of me in each character that I play.

Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
I haven’t a clear idea about it. Maybe at 30 I can be a perfect wife, mother of two beautiful children, maybe still the same "strange girl" that I am now. Everything depends on my career... but who knows?

All photos and graphics courtesy of Ilaria Paci and published with permission.