So, after reading the novel Walking Marina, I fell in love with the story, the main character and the fashion world, shown just like it is. D.R. Hildebrand offered to us the chance to go backstage, and made us witnesses of the life of a young boy trying to survive as a model, in one of the most famous and beautiful cities around the world, New York.
 
I honestly invite you to read that amazing book, you will love it.

Who's behind Walking Marina?... Who described so perfectly the fashion world when the lights are off? Who gave us a pass to a life of a woman called Marina?...



His name is D.R. Hildebrand (David Raphael Hildebrand). He is one of the most beautiful men in the world and an official hawtness on IL BLOG but his beauty is not an impediment to be an intelligent and cultured man based in N.Y. He graduated in one of the best universities in the U.S. however, he is an extraordinary model, a very sensitive man and a deep, mysterious and superb writer.

This is the art of creation, the writer who paints beautiful images through words and chapters; the fashion star that poses like a god and goes across the pictures, conveying feelings and messages to the world, proving that a male model can be more than the obvious, he represents the most sublime of the male gender in the industry. The man David Raphael Hildebrand is the visionary hand of the author, the body, eyes and the smile of the model and the shape, substance and the echo of someone  sophisticated and talented who defies himself to be the best he ever could have imagined.

This is the first of three parts of the interview that I did with the wonderful D.R. Hildebrand.

Beauty creates artistically the light that draws the figures drown in our eyes, beauty doesn't give up, beauty implies nothing. (D.R. Hildebrand).

THE INTERVIEW: THE MAN.

Tell us about David Raphael Hildebrand. Where are you from? When were you born?

I was born in February 1981 in a quiet, historic section of Philadelphia called Rittenhouse Square.  It has tree-lined streets, Victorian brownstones, cafés on the corners.  It’s beautiful.  I’m fortunate to be raised where I was.  Very fortunate.

You studied Religion and Human Rights at the University of Chicago.  How was your experience as a student?

Enlightening…  Graduate school confirmed for me that while I enjoy critical thinking, I require creative writing.  I wasn’t there very long and people sometimes ask if I regret it.  But how could I?  It gave me one of the most valuable experiences I could hope for: to find myself, to become myself.

What's your biggest dream?

On a personal level, I want to communicate humanity in my writing—in my characters, in my plots.  I want to bring readers to feel and believe the honesty of what they’re reading, to gain compassion for the individuals in the stories and to realize that if they can empathize with fictitious characters then they can empathize with anyone.  In real life, day to day, we need to extend our understanding.  I want to encourage this extension through literature.

On a global level, my biggest dream is simple: a renewed respect for life.  For all life.  For others’.  For one’s own.  For plants, for animals, for oceans.  We kill.  We destroy.  So incomprehensibly.

Do you have an impossible dream?

I think I’m too practical to ponder the impossible.

Success or fulfillment?

Well, success is temporary and fulfillment is lasting.  I set goals out of necessity, as anyone would, and to keep me challenged of course.  But ultimately I have to be fulfilled.  No question.

Are you married, single, or want to have kids?

I’m not married, not single, and have a child.

Define yourself with a quote.

“Be the change you want to see in the world.”  --  Mahatma Gandhi

What's passion for you?

The inability to be deterred.

Do you have brothers and sisters? How was your life when you were a little boy?

I have two older sisters.  Aside from a few close friends they were the most stable, dependable part of my childhood.  My sisters and I became very close, probably because my father was a time bomb whom my mother should have left long before she did.  To make a long story short, though, a lot of my childhood I tend not to think about except to learn from the decisions and actions I encountered yet strongly, very strongly oppose.

Do you have something that you could not live without?

My paper and pens.  Writing is clarity and clarity is catharsis.  The writing doesn’t need to be read; it just needs to be written.

What did you want to be when you were a kid?

An Olympian.  Definitely an Olympian.

It is impossible to safely hold your breath when you read so voraciously smart, deep and honest answers.
I am fascinated with D.R. Hildebrand, his novel captivated my senses from the moment I read the first line, his humbleness is an example for those who are sick of arrogance; as a model, he is iconic, enigmatic, wise and chameleonic; he wastes no time letting fear rule his ideals, he has the power to create and recreate his own universe, he is a ray of light, alive, saving us from darkness, anciently called "Ignorance".

Art is subjective like a mirage in the desert and having the honor to be creative is a divine gift, the thing that can turn us into something like a god can be dangerous, eternal as a memory or difficult to dig as asphalt.

Lesson learned: The most amazing things in life come in the form of a man.

To Be Continued...