1. Erin: Oh, Tyra and your insane love of all things sepia. Anyway, great photo and it totally matches the theme of the shoot, which was a beauty shot, so I anoint it best of the week. Heh, that was… pretentious. She really came through on all levels here. Her hand and body could have looked awkward, but they didn’t. The facial expression here is perfect. That’s about all I gotta say, it’s a good picture by a good model.
2. Nicole: Wow. The only reason this isn’t higher is because I don’t know if she followed the objective of the photoshoot – a beauty shot, after all – as well as Erin did, but it’s another really fantastic photo from this girl. It’s such a fashion pose and her face is really flawless. She manages to utilize her outfit/other styling while still making sure her facial expression is the most important part of this shot. Her jawline is pretty insane, in a good way. Oh, I don’t like the fact that it looks like she’s feeling herself up, but other than that, it’s just a great photo. The top two this week were excellent.
3. Rae: I don’t like the way her neck is straining, but other than that, wow. She really nails the whole ethereal thing, and her face just looks flawless here. The expression on her face is both fashionable and interesting. That’s… all I gotta say. Good photo for Rae.
4. Sundai: Sundai is definitely improving, so yaaaay. This photo is kind of boring, but it fulfills the brief and her styling wasn’t as interesting and/or dynamic as others, so that’s not entirely her fault. The wonk-eye, though? It probably is, and that’s not good. Still, I like this photo. Even if Rae pulled off the soft and pretty thing much better, Sundai did that, too. Props to her.
5. Ashley: I actually like this photo, even if it’s not exactly great. It’s really simple but she brought a nice vibe to it. The photo actually reminds me of Tahlia’s paint beauty shot from last cycle, which I openly admit I adored. I thought it had an impact despite being so simple. Ashley’s photo, while good and simple like that one, lacks Tahlia’s oomph (did you ever think that sentence would be said? Nope). Like, there’s just sort of a dullness and heaviness over the whole photo. But it’s nice.
6. Laura: I could not love her more, but her pictures started out great and now they’re slipping into only good and even mediocre. I’m pretty sure she’s in it for the long haul, which I don’t mind, but she needs to have some better photos. This photo is notably worse than the first five. Her face is okay. I see what she was going for, but her expression is heavy and she looks drag. Her body is super awkward in this photo, too. She shouldn’t lie down; it never looks good in photos when she does that. It sounds like I really hate this photo, and I don’t. The judges were right to say that it has sort of a Renaissance feel to it, and I love that. Despite being vaguely drag, it also has a lovely soft appeal. It’s not great, but the ones below this photo are significantly worse.
7. Brittany: Yeah, I’m not so much a fan of this. There’s no doubt she killed it on set, so I have no problems with her getting that “immunity” thing, but this photo is totally bizarre and not really in a good way. This photo definitely has a high fashion vibe, but that’s due to the styling and not really what Brittany’s doing. She’s kind of a non-entity in this photo, which isn’t really the point of a beauty shot. She also has that harsh and old thing going on with her face that she usually does, and her expression is dead. IMO, Brittany needs to improve big time.
8. Kara: She looks like a way more drag Brittany C8 in this shot, and Brittany C8 had the tendency to look kinda drag. Anyway, yeah. It’s just really blah. She didn’t have a good beauty shot like Erin or Sundai, and she didn’t do anything to push herself further. Plus, what we can see of her body looks kind of weird. It’s just… eh. I don’t have anything to say, really.
9. Bianca: Yeah, this is not very good. I maintain she’s really gorgeous and I like the action in this shot, but wow, she looks so incredibly uncomfortable and awkward. The expression is pretty much laughable. For a beauty shot, that face is remarkably bad, and the extremely visible strain in the arm – and the visible armpit BOOOO!!!!! – proves distracting. Also, her proportions look really off in this shot. It’s not a horrible photo, but it’s not very good.
10. Jennifer: Ugh, I got so excited when she was relatively awesome last week, but this photo is terrible. She’s totally winning, though. It’s thirty times more obvious than Teyona’s win was, even if she hasn’t gotten a FCO yet. First of all, is it awful of me to say it reminds me of those old racist cartoons of Asians? With the horribly slanted eyes and the buck teeth? Like, you all know I hate buck teeth, and this photo is not good at all. Jennifer has a really beautiful face IRL, but she needs to watch out what angles she’s photographed at, because a lot of them are really bad. She looks best straight-on. Like Bianca’s photo, there’s too much tension going on here, and she looks stiff and uncomfortable. I give her props for trying, but this photo isn’t good at all.
