It’s saturday morning in the studio of the Brazilian photographer Maurício Nahas and everybody is waiting for Naomi Campbell.  The team that will work with her in the photo shoot is tense. “Is she a difficult person as people say?”, someone asks. Naomi arrives one and half hour late with a big smile on the face. She says “bom dia!” (“good morning” in portuguese), as if she was Brazilian born. She wears huge sunglasses, a black top and a mini-skirt. She looks like a 16 years old girl.

Naomi with the photographer Maurício Nahas, at a photo session for “Poder” magazine.
Photo: Hermano Silva / The Gentleman

The interview with me and my coleague Suzy starts. The time is short and Naomi has to talk with us while a team brushes her hair and do her make up. After a while the adult woman appears, the same Naomi we know from the magazines. As we joke in Brazil, “My Saint Lord of Make Up!”. Naomi is another.  When she’s almost ready, she finishes the make up herself with some more tricks, as a good supermodel she is.

This self-consciousness towards her image maybe is the reason for the power she got in her business. After each photo, Naomi looks to the notebook positioned in front of her like a mirror. She knows what a good picture is and asks – gently – to the photographer delete the ones that she disliked.

I was very curious to know what was her definition for a real gentleman. To her, “the gentleman must have discipline, manners and power”. Does anyone disagree?