America's Next Top Model

On Wednesday, we learned that McKey was crowned America's Next Top Model of Cycle 11, beating out Analeigh and Samantha for that top spot.

While many have complained that this season was a snoozefest, most also thought that all three of the girls generally took strong high-fashion shots. So how did their final photo shoot – which required nailing that fresh and approachable commercial look – turn out? Which shots were the best and worst of the America's Next Top Model finale?


Of all three, yes, McKey's looks the most like an actual commercial model shot.

I don't know, though, if it's really the commercial shot they had in mind.  The hairstyle and pose selected make me unable to think of anything but a box of Clairol haircolor from 1986. Or maybe L'Oreal from some brief period when Andie McDowell had a short soccer mom do.

None of this, please note, is criticism heaped on McKey; it's all about the choices the other people made around this photo.



Analeigh looks like a cuter Denise Richards from an alternate universe where she would be so wholesome as to never even consider dating Charlie Sheen.


Samantha looks…like a toothpaste ad from 1963.

But you know what? I can't really criticize the modelettes themselves too much for the failure of these photographs either for one specific reason: what the heck happened with these photographs?

Analeigh's nose – which wasn't very model-y but was super cute – has been airbrushed into unrecognizability.

Samantha looks like she's one more post-production treatment away from being a drawing rather than a photograph of a person.

I recognize that the overarching creative aim of a Cover Girl photograph isn't exactly Dorothea Lange level verisimilitude, but come on now. There are limits.

The three photos that came out of this America's Next Top Model cycle's final competitive photo shoot were, for me, a big let down, especially after the creativity each of the finalists had brought to their previous shoots. Well, considering the strength of some of the other photos each has in their portfolio, this clunker isn't too heartbreaking.



- Leslie Seaton, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
(Images courtesy of CW)