Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

With only six models remaining in the running to become Caribbean’s Next Top Model, each contestant is coming under greater pressure, both from the judges and from themselves.

Tears are always close to the surface and come out several times, especially during elimination.

This week, the Wendy Mail for the challenge asked “Do you know your strength?” The models weren’t given a challenge, but experienced some personal time with host Wendy Fitzwilliam. She said they’d all grown amazingly since the beginning, but there was always room for improvement, and gave them all individual pointers. Fitzwilliam reminded the girls that the camera should and can be their best friend or there to be flirted with. She told the girls to focus on having a range of facial expressions to choose from.
For the photoshoot, the Wendy Mail read “Dominate or be Dominated.” The girls were put under the creative direction of Australian model Dani Swan, actress and motion capture performance artist, who has recently been cast as the lead in the upcoming Hollywood science fiction movie, “Cerulean.”
The photoshoot was a pin-up poster where the girls were paired, giving each girl the opportunity to be either the dominatrix or the submissive. The photos were shot by Barbados’ Alison Holder. Yugge was paired with Linda, Nicoya with Sydney and Ayana with Kittisha.
Swan said the models “gave it their all but some did more than others for sure. One of the things the photographer and I both agreed on was that when they come on set, they cannot be not confident. Even if you don’t know your lines when you’re doing a role, you still have to own it, but honestly I think that’s just going to happen with growth for the girls.”
Judging panel consisted of Fitzwilliam, Swan, Richard Young and photographer Pedro Virgil. The theme of the week was movement and interpretation. The girls were judged in both the roles and the winner of the week’s best photo received a digital painting by artist Tani Kunitake to be featured in the graphic novel for “Cerulean”.
Things got a bit tense when Swan said one of the models had tried to take over creative direction of the shoot. Wendy was taken aback and asked who it was and Swan explained that Yugge and Linda had proposed an idea of their own. Yugge then said she hadn’t been trying to take over the photoshoot, but using the advice that had been given to her in previous photoshoots that the model could have some input. But Virgil said that only applied if she was the only one being photographed but as Linda did not get a chance to collaborate or give her ideas, Yugge shouldn’t have said anything.
Best photo went to Kittisha, next was Nicoya, Ayana and Linda, who broke down when her name was called. Surprisingly, Sydney and Yugge were left in the bottom two and Fitzwilliam said they both had grown over the course of the competition. In the end, Sydney was the one to go forward, while Yugge stumbled out of the room in tears.
Coming up, jealousy raises its head as Nicoya said she thought Kittisha’s pose was too simple to get best photo. The challenge will see the girls stilt-walking and being photographed in Carnival costumes.