“America's Next Top Model” ‘Crime Scene’ Photographer Was ‘Mortified’ Watching the Documentary

Staff AuthorSat, February 28, 2026 at 11:00 AM UTC

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Mike Rosenthal (left); Dionne Walters (right)Credit: John Salangsang/WWD/Penske Media via Getty; Netflix -

Mike Rosenthal, one of the ANTM photographers, was not made aware of the backstory of the crime scene photo shoot, according to his wife, Jen Atkin

Dionne Walters, who was asked to pose as a gunshot victim, shared in the Netflix documentary that her mom was previously a victim of gun violence

Walters tells PEOPLE that at the time, it felt like a coincidence, but looking back, she no longer thinks that

In Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, there were several bombshell stories shared by models who appeared on the show — and some of them proved to be a difficult watch.

In episode 2 of the three-episode documentary, Dionne Walters, who appeared on cycle 8 in 2007, shared some backstory on the "crime scene" photo shoot that models took part in. In this particular shoot, lensed by Mike Rosenthal, the models had to portray being found in a variety of crime scenes. For Walters, she was asked to pose as if she'd been shot in the head.

"When I was a kid, my mom was shot, and she was paralyzed from the waist down," Walters shares in the Netflix project as the clip from the original show is displayed. "[Production] knew about it from the application process, but they still chose to have me do this particular photo shoot that involved gun violence."

Cycle 8 castCredit: Michael Yarish/The CW

However, apparently the photographer was not made aware of this backstory, according to his wife, hairstylist Jen Atkin.

On Feb. 26, she posted a few screengrabs of Rosenthal to Instagram. She wrote in the caption, "Ok so Mike (aka baby Nigel Barker) was mortified watching the ANTM doc bc he never knew what happened to that models mother when he was on the shoot."

The model in question was Walters, speaking about her mom's past injury.

In the documentary, Walters says that, at the time, she felt like being assigned this scenario was a coincidence, but looking back, she changed her tune.

Walters, who is now 40, tells PEOPLE, "In my mind, I was kind of thinking, 'Well, what would my mom tell me to do?' My mom would tell me just to push through it, 'Do everything that you can to push through this. This is a small thing to a giant.'"

It wasn't until years later that she set aside the idea of coincidence and speculated that the show wanted to get a reaction out of her — but she didn't give them one.

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"When you're seeing this with a 20-year-old lens, some of this stuff is not registering to you at that time," she tells PEOPLE of her perspective. "But when you become older and you become wiser and you understand what you're actually seeing and viewing, you have a different lens on it."

Walters adds of what she claimed in the documentary: "I said this in my interview, I said, 'They tried to get a reaction out of me, but they didn't,' and I said, 'I'm glad about that,' and I said, 'I'm glad that I never gave them the reaction that they wanted,' and I said that I was proud of myself, and I patted myself on the back, but that part didn't air."

PEOPLE reached out to a rep for Banks but did not immediately hear back.

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Mike Rosenthal and wife Jen Atkin in 2025Credit: Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Rosenthal served as a guest photographer several times throughout the 24-cycle course of America's Next Top Model. The show was hosted by Tyra Banks, who also appeared in the Netflix documentary. She shares at the end that looking at ANTM through the "lens of today," she can see that some of the decisions made on the show weren't ideal.

"I thank you for that," she says of people calling it out. "That's is the only way you change. That is the only way you get better."

Ken Mok, who executive produced the show alongside Banks, also appeared in the documentary. In response to the crime scene photo shoot, Mok showed remorse for putting the models through such a traumatic scene.

"I take full responsibility for that shoot. That was a mistake. I look back now, and I think it was a celebration of, like, violence," Mok says. "It was crazy. That one, I look back, and I’m like, 'You were an idiot.'”

Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model is streaming on Netflix now.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”