10 Most Offensive Photoshoots on America's Next Top Model

10 Most Offensive Shoots on America’s Next Top Model

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most controversial “America’s Next Top Model” photoshoots that left viewers cringing, critics fuming, and, most importantly, the contestants themselves questioning whether any of it was worth it.

Floating Water Nymphs Photoshoot

Cycle 7

Submerging young women in freezing cold water for the sake of an ethereal fairy-tale aesthetic sounds questionable on paper, and it was even worse in practice. Paired up to pose as floating water nymphs, the girls were expected to look serene and otherworldly despite battling near-hypothermic conditions. Melrose Bickerstaff delivered striking shots despite the cold, while Eugena Washington struggled to stay afloat and produced several blank expressions before landing a few usable images. The situation turned serious when CariDee English began shivering uncontrollably and had to be pulled from the water with symptoms of hypothermia. Years later, Washington told Business Insider, “I felt like my life was being put on the line for ratings.” Hard to argue with that assessment.

Side Effects of Smoking Photoshoot

Cycle 9

Give credit where it's due: the anti-smoking angle was at least conceptually grounded in something real. Each model had to deliver two shots: a “glamorous” smoking image and a “consequence” shot depicting the physical damage smoking causes, including premature aging, lung disease, and facial burns. It was certainly memorable, but critics questioned whether the imagery crossed into shock value rather than awareness. Then to make matters worse, Tyra Banks banned smoking in the model house, forcing several contestants who smoked to quit cold turkey. So the show essentially manufactured physical and psychological stress, then asked the models to perform around a habit they’d just been forced to abandon. Relatable content, truly.

Circus Freaks Photoshoot

Cycle 7

Cycle 7 was apparently committed to making everyone uncomfortable, because this isn't the first and won’t be the last entry from that season on this list. The contestants were styled as exaggerated “circus freak” archetypes, referencing the kinds of sideshow spectacles that historically exploited people with unusual physical traits. Some transformations were particularly awkward. Contestant Megg Morales, for example, was styled as a bearded lady. Even in the context of avant-garde fashion, the imagery leaned heavily on stereotypes associated with old-fashioned freak shows. The concept also clashed with modern conversations about representation and dignity. What might once have been considered edgy editorial felt more like a throwback to a time when difference itself was treated as spectacle.

Political Controversies Photoshoot

Cycle 8

Reality TV and politics rarely mix gracefully, and this photoshoot proved why. Contestants were assigned opposing sides of major political debates, including gun rights, same-sex marriage, fur fashion, and abortion. The idea was to teach the models how to make a strong visual statement, but translating complex policy debates into a single image was always going to be messy. Some photos bordered on cartoonish literalism. The late Jael Strauss famously posed chained to the doors of an abortion clinic. And while Brittany Hatch’s pro-fur image looked polished from a fashion perspective, glamorization of the fur industry has aged poorly since then. Instead of thoughtful discourse, the result was a muddled collection of images guaranteed to offend somebody.

Biracial “Hapa” Photoshoot

Cycle 13

Racially insensitive photoshoots were unfortunately a common occurrence on “America’s Next Top Model.” While visiting Maui in Cycle 13, the final six contestants were assigned mixed ethnic identities for a shoot inspired by the Hawaiian concept of “hapa,” referring to people of multiracial heritage. On paper, the idea sounded like a celebration of diversity. In practice, it relied heavily on altering the models’ appearances with darker makeup, wigs, and stereotypical styling meant to represent different cultural backgrounds. The execution revealed an alarming lack of research into the cultures being “celebrated.” The costuming leaned on tired visual shorthand, reducing complex cultural identities to costume choices. This one remains firmly lodged in the show's hall of shame.

Model Stereotypes Photoshoot

Cycle 7

This time, the show decided to confront the darker side of the modeling industry, except confronting it and sensationalizing it are two very different things. Megg Morales was labeled “The Drug Addict,” posing as if she had overdosed, while Michelle Babin was tasked with portraying “The Bulimic,” hunched over a toilet. The intention was to highlight the darker side of the fashion world, yet the execution veered into graphic territory that many viewers found uncomfortable. Rather than sparking thoughtful conversation about mental health or substance use disorder, the exaggerated scenarios risked trivializing those real human experiences. The resulting photos were certainly memorable, though mostly for the uneasy reaction they provoked among audiences.

“Homeless” Fashion Photoshoot

Cycle 10

Few “America’s Next Top Model” shoots have generated the kind of sustained discomfort this one has. The Cycle 10 concept placed models in designer clothing, styled them as homeless women, and photographed them alongside real unhoused individuals in a city setting. The fashion industry's complicated relationship with poverty-as-aesthetic is already a fraught conversation, but literally involving real unhoused people as background elements in luxury garments while models posed took it somewhere genuinely troubling. The people featured in those images weren't contestants with agency over their participation. The disconnect between the glamour being sold and the real hardship being borrowed from couldn't have been more glaring.

Graveyard Coffin Photoshoot

Cycle 4

Posing as corpses in coffins to represent the seven deadly sins is a concept that could theoretically work, in a different context, with a different set of circumstances. But Cycle 4 contestant Kahlen Rondot received devastating news that a close high school friend of hers had died just before the shoot. The sensible thing to do would have been to pause production or adjust the concept. But no. The show decided to have Kahlen portray "Wrath" while lying in a literal open grave. She delivered what judges called one of the best photos of the cycle, but the human cost of that image is impossible to ignore. The debate over whether the show owed her more than that has never really gone away.

Crime Scene Photoshoot

Cycle 8

This one has haunted fans for years, and for good reason. Models were assigned different causes of death and asked to make their staged corpse look editorial. One of the contestants, Dionne Walters, was cast as a gunshot victim, photographed as if she had been shot in the head. What production knew, and apparently set aside, was that Walters’ mother had been left paralyzed after being shot when Walters was just six years old. Meanwhile, Jael Strauss arrived on set just days after losing a close friend to a drug overdose, and was still expected to play dead for the camera. The show's willingness to exploit personal trauma for a “compelling storyline” was laid completely bare here.

Ethnicity-Swapping “Got Milk?” Photoshoot

Cycle 4

Framed as a “Got Milk?” campaign celebrating diversity, the contestants were transformed to portray women of different ethnic backgrounds. These transformations involved darkening the models’ skin, altering facial features with makeup and prosthetics, and styling them to represent cultures they did not belong to while holding children from those cultures. Darkening a white model's skin to portray a Black woman is blackface. Using prosthetics to simulate Asian or Indian features is racial caricature. The show called it a celebration; critics and audiences called it what it was. Shockingly, they repeated this concept, with the aforementioned “Hapa” photoshoot in Cycle 13, seemingly having learned nothing the first time around. This one wasn't just a low point for “America’s Next Top Model.” It was a low point, full stop.

Think we missed a photoshoot that made your jaw drop? Let us know in the comments below.