By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

INSPIRED by the popular and long-running “America’s Next Top Model” reality television show, Bahamian artists have created “The Next Face” competition.

The series-based competition, The Next Face (TNF), focuses on 10 Bahamian ladies that take on challenges involving beauty, themed photo shoots, entertainment and commercials. The challenges are also caught on camera and uploaded to ‘The Next Face Shawn’ via YouTube.

In an interview with Tribune Entertainment, the show’s producer, judge and official photographer Shawn Hanna, said this is something that he has always had a mind to do.

“This actually started off as an Instagram competition. I posted a status telling my followers that I was looking for the ‘New Face’ and if anyone is interested, go on Instagram to post a photo of them using the hash tag ‘ShawnTPickMe’. It turned out to be so many girls doing it and someone suggested that I go with my Next Top Model idea. That same day I planned it and I then picked the ten girls in two weeks,” said Mr Hanna.

The ten ladies that were chosen to be on TNF journey included Patria Symonette, Jonelle Armbrister, Crystal Roberts, Waydell Ingraham, Gia Ferguson, Krystle Curtis, Ashleigh Thompson, Alaba Angole and Keithra.

“We officially started during the last Saturday in January and we had seminars and challenges every Saturday. The seminars are for an hour from 10am to 11am and we met up at the College of the Bahamas in the Gallery room,” he said.

“So far, all of the challenges were based on photo shoots with different themes. We have a guest judge/speaker that usually comes in and join myself and my TNF partner and fashion designer, Rebecca Johnson, after every session,” said Mr Hanna.

TNF guest judges included shoe designer Dandreia Bethel, fashion model Kenneisha Morrison, photographer Shavado Gibson and makeup artists Shauna Ferguson. Official designers for the show were Rebecca Johnson, Indira Moss and Ria Smith. The makeup artists were DeAnte Gray, Lincey Carey and Shauna; videographers for TNF were Racardo “Seven” Thomas and Aaron Davis.

“We had Kenneisha come in and she spoke on runway and full body posing and another week shoe designer Dandreia came in and she spoke on marketing,” said Mr Hanna.

With TNF challenges, Mr Hanna explained that the girl that received the highest votes for the top photo during the shoot would be safe from elimination. The bottom two would then be chosen, leaving one girl hoping for another chance in the competition.

Speaking about the themed photo shoot challenges, Mr Hanna said the “Poverty” shoot was the most memorable.

“This was basically a shoot where the girls had to play the part of someone that is homeless, and bring it to life. We had them do an impromptu where they had to write up a script in 10 minutes about their life as a homeless person. Some of them spoke about things like abuse, drunkards, voodoo and the fast life. The scripts that they gave us, we lined it up next to their photos so the viewer would be able to tell what the story is behind the photo. We were supposed to do a video with the scripts but we didn’t have time,” Mr Hanna said.

He said the girls also did a photo shoot entitled “Sun, Sand and Sea,” wearing Ms Johnson’s designs.

“The challenge for that was to pose in a hammock. We all know it is not easy to steadily pose in and change positions in a hammock. They all had to battle this one out and manoeuvre their way in there. We were down to five girls last week and now the top three have been chosen. They will battle it out in an in studio photo shoot and quick sequence commercial selling LuCairi brand watches,” said Mr Hanna.

The top five ladies included Gia Ferguson, Ashleigh Thompson, Krystle Curtis, Alaba Angole and Patria Symonette. Advancing to the top three were Krystle, Alaba and Patria.

“The main reason we are choosing these three for the final three is because they are all beautiful in their own way, and on top of that, inexperienced. This is there first time doing anything that involves constant modelling,” he said.

“We plan to have a reunion and the winner will be called at the end of the reunion. So it will be like a reunion as well as a finale kind of show.”

The final for TNF will be this Saturday and the reunion will be held on March 15. The filming of reunion episode will be open to the public and media groups. For more reunion information log on to www.shawntphotography.com; Facebook ‘Shawn Hanna’; Instagram: @_fashionphotographer, or check out ‘The Next Face Shawn’ on YouTube.