Rudy Callegari is no top model.
So when fashion photographer Nigel Barker tapped him to strike a pose for his “Senior Portraits” series, the 97-year-old World War II vet was thunderstruck.
“I thought, ‘Who the hell am I that he’d want to take my picture?’” Callegari, from Red Hook, told The Post with a laugh.
“‘He could be taking pictures of celebrities. But he wants me?’” said the Brooklynite. “‘I’m honored.’”
Barker, who famously photographed the wannabe starlets of “America’s Next Top Model” in the mid 2000s, launched his senior-centric project this spring.
While preparing his son Jack, 18, a high school senior, to take graduation pictures, the A-list lensman became inspired to immortalize golden agers in their golden years.
“I’m about storytelling, capturing the narrative of someone’s life,” Barker, 52, told The Post. “Seniors have the best stories ever.”
“They’ve seen every fashion change, every hairstyle change — so many changes in the world throughout their lives,” he continued.
“I’m telling the stories deep in their souls.”
But Barker’s brilliance had to be clicking while tackling the task.
Unlike the swanky supermodels he often shoots, such as Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell, pensioners demanded speedy perfection.
“Talk about being fierce and smizing,” said Barker, describing the hauntingly haute looks the seniors serve while staring into his camera.
“But they only give about three to four minutes, five minutes max,” he laughed, “‘and if I haven’t got the shot, they’re like, ‘You’re not as good as people say you are.’”
Barker snapped black and white stills of Callegari — who he endearingly called a “heartthrob” — and his fellow residents at Monarch Communities, an assisted-living neighborhood, in New Rochelle.
Executives of Monarch, the proprietors of several retirement villages across the tri-state area, welcomed Barker to treat consenting tenants to “‘Top Model’ for a day” splendor in April.
He plans to repeat the sweet deed for Monarch dwellers in Connecticut and New Jersey in May.
Once completed, the gallery of photos will hang on display at the properties alongside darling details about each senior’s life.
“Our residents in their eighties and beyond have an understated greatness to them with their wisdom and stories that we wanted to share with the world,” Michael Glynn, CEO of Monarch Communities told The Post. “Through his unique creative approach, Nigel is shining a light on this beauty and empowering our elders to continue to be an integral part of society.”
Barker hopes his senior portraits encourage “anti-aging” obsessed tots, tweens and teens to embrace the beauty of maturing.
“Wrinkles are the stories of our lives,” he told The Post, crediting mom Gillian, 83, and late grandmother, Inyce, 97, for his high regard for retirees. “[Wrinkles] show whether we laughed or cried a lot in our lives.”
“It’s the map of where we’ve been, which should be celebrated.”
Callegari agrees.
“You gotta be happy every day,” said the nonagenarian, who’s looking forward to turning 100 in a few years. “If you laugh every day you’ll love as long as me.”
“I laughed so much [during the photoshoot with Barker], I’ll probably live another 20 years.”
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