Jez Smith is on the road (again) with America's Next Top Model

ANTM via the CW

Sydney-based Brit fashion photographer Jez Smith might have quit his role as a judge on Australia’s Next Top Model last year citing work commitments and the fact that he "struggles" with the reality tv format, but he has just wrapped a shoot with America’s Next Top Model – in fact his second gig with the NTM mother ship.

Smith’s Australian agent, Viviens Creative Management, confirmed to frockwriter that Smith was currently overseas working with ANTM, but declined to provide any other information when we called this morning. In fact, the agency could not get off the phone quickly enough. Given the draconian non disclosure agreements imposed on anyone who comes within a cooee of the show, hardly surprising perhaps.

On June 23rd Smith – who describes himself on Twitter as an “occasional NextTopModel judge (US and AUS)" - Tweeted that he was en route to a “secret location”. Here is a shot of the location that was posted by Smith on Instagram on Tuesday. It looks very much like the same tropical island location from which ANTM host Tyra Banks and new ANTM judge Bryanboy have been Tweeting and blogging beach shots for the past week – a destination not too far from the ANTM studios in Los Angeles (Jamaica).

The latest photoshoot for ANTM Cycle 19 is now up on the show’s website. It depicts the bikini-clad Cycle 19 contestants cavorting in the ocean clutching an oversized bottle of Dream Come True, the fragrance that was developed for the show.

One assumes this is Smith’s work. If so, he reprised a very similar role played in Cycle 18, episode 11, when he shot another mock campaign for Dream Come True in Hong Kong and made a cameo appearance as a guest judge. Here he is on the Cycle 18 shoot:

via tvequals.com

It is unclear whether Smith’s role with the show and fragrance extends any further than cameo appearances as talent.

The first real Dream Come True campaign is fronted by Cycle 18 winner Sophie Sumner and looks to have been shot not by Smith, but American Corey Nickols.