Interview: Emilio Barzini
Photography: Yuri Sokolov & Elena van Gallen
Interviewer: Elena Volk

[The interview takes place in a secluded corner of a members-only club in Milan. Emilio Barzini’s posture is one of cultivated ease, but his eyes hold the focused intensity of the Amalfi cliffs.]

Elena Volk (EV): Emilio. A debut. A DIFUSIE debut. And a debut completely naked in front of the most unforgiving lens in the business. What was the greater challenge: facing the camera, or facing your own reflection in the mirror that morning?

Emilio Barzini (EB): (Sets down an espresso cup with deliberate calm.) The camera was the lesser problem. The camera is an external instrument. It is like a surgeon’s scalpel—if you trust the surgeon, you don’t fear the blade. The harder fight was with the old-world ghosts in my head. The voices that whisper, “This is disgraceful.” “What will your family say?” “You are not a whore.” (A pause. He holds her gaze.) Then I understood. I was not there to be sexy. I was there to be true. And truth is always naked. Everything else is a costume.

EV: And that truth is… impressively equipped. In that moment of total exposure, was it difficult not to become preoccupied with the… technical aspects of the shoot?

EB: (His laugh is a low, rich rumble.) Absolutely it was. (The laugh fades.) At first, yes. It’s a physiological response. You are standing there, everything is on display, and all you can think is, ‘For God’s sake, don’t let it shrink. Don’t let it look small.’ The anxiety can be paralyzing. But then, you look across the set. You see Buck Wilder, completely at ease, as if he’s just waiting for a bus. You see Marat Casapin, treating his nudity like a second skin of armor. And you realize: the biggest organ on set is not between your legs. It’s the six inches between your ears. You must command that.

EV: You mention the other models. The chemistry in the group shots is palpable, almost… charged. Was that intimacy manufactured, or did something genuine happen between you men in those isolated, raw spaces?

EB: It was not manufactured. It was forged. There is a unique brotherhood that forms when all the barriers are removed. There is no hiding behind a brand, a suit, a persona. You are just… a man. And you see the man next to you in the same state. With Buck, it was a silent understanding. A nod. A shared smirk when the wind turned bitingly cold on the cliffside. With Marat, it was more… verbal. He would say something brutally honest, and it would shatter any last remnant of pretense. You cannot maintain insecurity when the man next to you is so completely, defiantly secure in his own skin. They didn’t just pose with me. They held the space for me to be naked, in every sense.

EV: So the “hardcore heritage” isn’t just about genetics, but about this unsentimental fellowship?

EB: Precisely. The gene pool has no lifeguard, but it does have fellow swimmers. You look to your left and right. You see who is floating, and who is swimming with purpose. That is the real heritage. It’s the unspoken pact that says, “We are here, in this raw state, and we will not let each other drown in doubt.” The intimacy wasn’t physical in the way people might fantasize. It was deeper. It was psychological. We saw each other’s nakedness and did not look away. That creates a bond more permanent than clothing.

EV: Final question. For the man who is now looking at these images of you, fully exposed, what is the one thing you want him to understand?

EB: I want him to understand that the trembling nerve, the cold fear, the voice of doubt… I had them all. And I walked onto that set and let them fall to the floor with my robe. The power is not in having no fear. The power is in having the fear, and letting the whole world see what lies stubbornly, unashamedly, beneath it.

EV: Emilio, thank you for such a raw and eloquent testament.

EB: Grazie, Elena. After Amalfi, words feel easy.