ANTM Cycle 16 Finale; Britanni vs. Molly for Italian Vogue

Cycle 16 of ANTM is finally over and we have a new Top Model. Brittani Kline ftw! I'm so excited for her and I TOTALLY called it.

this post is a few weeks late because i've been so busy, but i really wanted to post it anyway. i love ANTM and i didn't want to ignore the finale.

Over the years, I think people have stopped taking ANTM seriously in terms of its ability to churn out industry-ready models, but i have to admit that even though this show is a HUGE guilty pleasure for me, it actually has taught me a lot about the message and tone of editorial photography, and what is usually expected. It's also taught me a lot (from a photography perspective) about what a model actually needs to be able to bring to the table on a shoot or job.

I loved this season's competition. The finale between Brittani and Molly was very close, and even though i was rooting for brittani, i was pretty sure that molly would win. the two girls emerged as top contenders fairly early on, and though molly pulled ahead towards the end, brittani eventually prevailed.

these two girls are amazing and talented, and i would very literally kill to shoot each of them. individually they both have so many strengths and they're grown into amazing models. i genuinely believe that molly still has the ability to make it without the ANTM title. 

in the end, i'm glad that brittani won, but i think that molly put up a formidable fight. between them, they had some of the strongest shots in the competition and i'm not surprised that they made it to the top two. check out some of my favourite shots from the two models after the jump.

but what do you think? do you still watch ANTM? did you think brittani deserved to win or were you rooting for molly? if you were tyra, what would you be looking for in the next face of italian vogue?

(all photos courtesy cwtv.com; ©2011 The CW Network, LLC. All Rights Reserved)

brittani's strength was in the fact that she inherently had a very high fashion look. between the natural contours of her face and the excellent bob that tyra gave her, she looked like she's jumped off a couture runway. her weakness was the fact that she took critiques too personally and let them affect her performance.

molly's strength was in her posing and the intensity she was able to bring in her expressions and angles. she had an innate kind of power that read very dramatically in her photographs. her weakness was in the fact that she wasn't able to mask her negative emotions on set, and it made her come across and cold and indifferent.

these are from the "crazy for" shoot at the universal lot (?). i loved molly's photo here and i thought it was an amazingly high fashion story. i can't remember his exact words, but i think this is one of the shots that andre leon talley wanted to put it up in his salon. i completely agree with him. brittani's shot reminded me of a demented wednesday adams! she looked great, but i thought her shot could have been better and more powerful. here she looks like a blank canvas, but she's already been given a story. she should have brought a little more life to her character.

the shots below are from one of the models' early challenges, where they had to pose with jewelry swarming with bees. i genuinely loved both of this shots immensely. brittani's photograph was dynamic and the lines of her body were interesting and beautiful. the curve in her neck and the way the light hit her eyes was magical. 

molly's hot was equally beautiful. she looked clean and fresh and beautiful. my favourite part of the shot is the way her lips are parted ever so slightly, and the shapes that are created with her collar bone. it's a beautiful picture of a gorgeous model. what i loved the most about each of these was the way we're able to really see and appreciate the angles in each of their faces.

these photos were from the blondes versus brunettes group shoot:

I really loved this shoot generally, and i thought that all the models did a great job, but that the blondes did a better job overall. the brunette shot was beautiful because of the angles they created, and they shapes they formed with their bodies. the reason that i loved the blondes' shot better was because it came across as more cohesive. while the brunettes were a pile of beautiful bodies, the blondes were more of a framed picture; it seemed more purposeful and deliberate. i think that brtittani shined in this shoot and clearly stood out a front-runner. molly did exceptionally well also, but stood out less because the other girls also did well.

below are more of my favourite pictures from this season, including the girls' covergirl print ads. tell me what you thought about this season in the comments below. did brittani deserve to win?

Sound Off: Dark Girls

Dark Girls: Preview from Bradinn French on Vimeo.

You know, I found this video almost literally the day before it started blowing up all over the web, and I had planned to do a big write up and explain my feelings about it. But in the long run, I don't think that a whole lot needs to be said.


The 10 minute clip of this documentary says so much on its own that I don't think that I need to add my two cents to the conversation. To me, I'm West Indian, and I'm black. The two are not mutually exclusive. And one of the things that I learnt really early on being in the US, is that the Afro-Caribbean experience is drastically different from that of the African American. 


I've never had to deal with these things. I've never even really been aware of my 'degree of blackness' as it were. But seeing this clip, and listening to these testimonials.... it breaks my heart. I almost feel guilty for not having had this experience, and for not being able to stand beside these women and say "This line of thinking is damaging to me too." And that's ridiculous, and i know it is, but I almost cannot conceive that this kind of thinking is so pervasive. I've never encountered it. And the worst part is that this self-hate is internal. It's coming from us. black men and women. no one else.



The most heart-breaking scene to me was of the little girl who had already internalized the 'white is right' attitude at such a young age. Isn't it sad that at no more that 5 years old, we've already taught her to hate herself? The two other clips that struck a cord with me were the clips of the young man saying he disliked dark girls, and the young woman saying that natural/kinky hair was nasty and disgusting. I've had my own struggles with my body image and what i thought was 'pretty'. When i was younger i wanted long blonde hair. But recently I went natural and started dreadlocks. the only regret i have is that i didn't do it sooner. Hearing someone say that; that I'm now ugly for a cosmetic choice i've made.. it troubles me.


From the looks of this clip, this documentary is going to be powerful. I cannot wait for it to premiere and I will be first in line to see it. It is shining a light on an issue that not a lot of people focus in on, sumply because they do not see it as an issue.


In the mean time I leave you with this quote from a poster on the upcoming film's facebook page: 

"If our beauty could be bottled and sold, it would be. Oh, wait they do sell it. Women getting injections for fuller lips, the new butt enhancing implants and risking cancer to tan skin as dark as possible. So, I am born with all that naturally and yet I am seen as less attractive than someone who buys all that? I 

thank God for making me, me." -Linda Caples

to learn more about the origins of colourism and discrimination based on skin clour, read this entry on wikipedia and then watch the documentary short below for some extra context about the same issue in other cultures.

Shadeism from Shadeism on Vimeo.

Friend Friday: Blogging Pet Peeves

As you start navigating the blogging world, one of the first things you notice is how many different ways there are to go about doing the same things. It can be overwhelming for a new blogger to see how many options are available and even more difficult to figure out what is actual content and what's just bells and whistles. In the 2 years that I've been blogging, i've accumulated a vaguely abstract list of pet peeves about blogs. (as have most bloggers). Stuff like this is entirely subjective (for example, i know that some people hate my dark background) but this weeks in #FBFF, we're talking about the things that tick us off about other people's blogs; all the things that make us click away before we even manage to read anything. Here are my pet peeves:


1. Autoplay Music:
I HATE this. it's so annoying to open a webpage and suddenly have music blasting at you. it's especially annoying for me because i'm usually doing several things at once and so i have several tabs open. Now I have to go hunting for the source of justin bieber so i can eliminate it. it's highly irritating. i don't mind if you have a playlist in your sidebar that i can choose to play, but autoplay is annoying and potentially inconvenient. (What if I like to read your blog while procrastinating at work?)

2. A Cluttered Interface:
One of the disadvantages of having a dark background for me is having to deal with this a lot. The black always seem to make everything look closer together and jumbled. i've actually been experimenting with switching to a white background. This is a legitimate problem. it's confusing and distracting to the eye to feel like everything is battling for the same piece of real estate on your blog. it's important to remember that reading on the web is a whole different ball game. you have to take into account the varying sizes and brightness of other people's screens and the effective that will have on their reading experience of your blog. it's best to go with a clean simple design.
also, i know that there are professional bloggers who rely on the ads in their sidebar for revenue, but i really hate ads on blogs. like i REALLY HATE ADS ON BLOGS. the smaller ones are ok, but rows and rows of ads turn me off.


3. The Social Media Bars at the bottom of your Screen:
I'm not sure why, they just tick me off. i hate them. they're distracting.


4. If I can't find your "ABOUT" section, or said section is not adequate:
One of the first things i do when i find a new blog is read their about page. if their content grabs me, then i want to find out more about them. i want to know what inspires them to create what they do or what got them started in said interest. if you're a blogger who creates amazing fashion illustrations and uses them to make 3D sculptures (or something equally amazing) and your about page just says "I like to draw and that friday song is pretty sweet", i'm going to be annoyed. the fashion pawn has a great post on how to beef up your about page.


5. You no haz a grammar:
I'm pretty lenient about capitalization. i don't mind if you start you sentences with common letters. i DO mind if your subject and verb don't agree. i DO mind if you don't know the difference between "its" and "it's". i DO mind if you do me the disservice of forgetting to spell check. i'm not the world's best speller. (i still sound some words out every time i spell them) but i DO take the time to proofread when i'm finished. that's the difference. i can't take you seriously if you don't bother to properly articulate what you're trying to say. and yes, i am a grammar snob.


6. You don't like "U":
this is related to the last one but it really only applies to me. I learnt to spell the british way so when i see "color" and "favorite" i start to twitch.


7. You don't source your photos:
Despite my best efforts i'm still guilty of this sometimes, but i HATE when a blogger makes no effort to source photos. or ANYONE for that matter. as a photographer,and journalist, i know how important a byline is. not giving credit where it's due is pretty much punishable by death as far as i'm concerned. even a simple backlink will do. and if you're unsure if to use a photo, this should help.
(funny story: there is "lifestyle magazine" on my campus that credits all article photos to google images. i wish to smack them)


8. You think you look really great today and feel the need to prove it to me. From every angle. Several times:
I recently commented on one of Vahni's posts that i hate blogs that have a bazillion shots of the same outfit. i feel like i come across very anti-OOTD sometimes because i'm so vehement about my distaste for this trend, but the truth is, it feels like you've substituted pictures for content. so i'll say again here what i said there, "i see no problem with ‘one shot wonders’ as you call them. i’d MUCH rather see one great shot of a fantastic outfit, than 5 bazillion shots of ANYTHING."


9. All pictures and no text:
This is almost the same as the last one but not quite. it applies more to bloggers who travel a lot i suppose and post pictures of the stuff they've found. while this is well and good, 50 pictures with not text to give it context is essentially, useless. don't do it. group themed pictures together and write a little story about why these things were significant enough to post about.2-3 lines will do.


10. Unrelated and/or out of focus photographs:
really?
REALLY? this should be a given.
in my media law class last semester we talked about a case where a girl sued because her photograph was used in a magazine about promiscuous sexual activity in teenagers. the article explicitly states (in fine print) that the photos are separate from the story. my questoion was, why the hell would you use the photos if they're unrelated? it can be hard to find pictures that are relevant for particularly obscure topics, but the internet is a vast place. keep looking. also, ifb to the rescue! keep tabs on the new ifb flickr pool. it isn't functional yet, but the aim is to help you avoid exactly this. 
also, any toddler with a P&S can take a focused picture. and that's coming from someone who hopes to make a living from taking pictures. don't sell yourself short. you don't need a fancy camera to take great shots. all you need to the know-how to operate the damn thing, and the patience to get the shot.

Head on over to Modly Chic to read her answers, join the fun and read the answers from other members of FBFF.