rambo elliott

@jonbatiste ⚡️ 1. new orleans underpass 2. power lines in dallas 3. country boy in nola 4. jimi hendrix’s studio in ny rooftop 5. leaning all the way out 6. family party in brooklyn 7. cultural icons 8. in gucci 107° 9. jon and his nephew brennan 2021 10. jon and his nephew brennan 2024

today marks 10 years with @stetsonusa for me 🤗📚💕 this was the very first photo they bought from me, a self portrait i took of myself in 2015. sweet @erinleesmith and @thelizlambert let me stay at their house deep in marfa, texas. i just lived there and created a few days; it was so, so inspiring there. the architecture. the books in their home. their movies, i watched the shining, mistake in the desert, and then had to immediately watch the jungle book, thankful it was also there. the awe of the majestic west texas landscape, wow. stetson a few years after this was taken asked me if they could buy it and post it, i agreed and became one of the many faces of their hashtag, #itsastetson i’ve built 36 projects for stetson since; i’ll build the exhibit and make my book soon enough. it feels cool to have been a postergirl for stetson all these years, always gonna love that. thanks @stetsonusa for trusting my visions, paying me to take adventures and build field trips, and mainly, make folks feel happy and gorgeous.

leon bridges: sweeter music video @leonbridgesofficial putting leon and my iconic energy from stills to movement was abundantly fun. the world was shut down when we made this, i got 7 days to imagine and deliver. leon referenced kendrick lamar’s alright video and clip of muhammad ali at the rodeo. that was all my steam needed. when you know someone a long time through many evolutions, you meet their people, as he has met a lot of mine. representing family is a sacred thing, those who made it together know this. there was a lot of injustice being brought to light in 2020, atatiana jefferson was murdered in our own city by cops, i was protesting in the street a lot then. i sat with leon’s poem “sweeter” for days, listening to it for hours on repeat, and i decided on JOY. not more black trauma. i took leon and i’s portrait life and made it move. we had everyone dress in black or white, as an homage to our initial photo style, i took close up stills of family members, friends so they could be moving pictures, a family reunion put on film. i met these guys over the years at his house, thru dance nights, art openings, you name it, and they were always sweet and good to me. his dad let my production use his home as a drop zone. we brought in a vintage car to ride around the neighborhood, and the neighborhood came out for us with so much pride and love. leon and i are quite the firestarters when it comes to dancing, haha, bringing that momentum in was so beautiful, half his crew, myself included, took serious dance classes, watching everyone move and flow together was awe-inspiring. i asked the guys to pat leon’s shoulders on the line “my sisters and my brothers sang sang over me” that morning and forgot to remind them again, but when we shot it, the line came and they all reached their hands out with real devotion and patted him on the back so so proud of him making it out. one of those pairs of hands was lost (rip baby j🌹), sealing it in as real history. it was one of the best days of my life honestly, spent with those i love, creating cool and vibrance and family, home.

for everybody that’s been called too much 💕💫 you haven’t met all the people who are gonna love you, and unmasking let the real folks find me. and helped me recognize the people who had been loving me well for awhile. you ain’t gotta be perfect to get loved 💐last bit from my beautiful conversation with very wise @rockygarza link to the podcast episode in my bio 🌻

@rockygarza and i TALKED, y’all. it was lovely. he gives his guests such a beautiful permission to be themselves. link to the podcast episode is in my bio 💕🥹

this year is my year of YES. just saying yes to every kind of opportunity that comes my way. @rockygarza rocky garza was a photographer when i met him but has since gone into the healing/public speaking space. he asked me to come on his podcast and talk what it is to be human. i don’t have a fear of public speaking, i have a fear of small talk, so it was a perfect conversation. rocky’s mind was truly so wise and fun to talk with, haha. we discussed my autism diagnosis at 36 and where i stand now at 40. i’m putting the link to our conversation in my bio, so y’all can watch the full version on youtube. hope it resonates with y’all 💕🎨

baby’s 1st international art show ✅ @giveton hired me to take an editorial of him in new york in 2020. i met him thru @jonbatiste i knew the second i heard him play, Giveton was one of the greats. G immediately spoke of his hometown in the bahamas, how proud he was to be from there, how supported he felt. we took a photo of him in his sneakers at a diner at the end of the day, i said, put on my cowboy hat. he looked so so strong in the photo that when i created my first solo exhibition, i created a 4x8ft wheatpaste of that photo. giveton loved it so much, when it came time to collect an exhibition about his journey and announcing his own scholarship program for musicians just like him, he asked me to recreate it for him. it was my truest honor. i like creating big moments as someone whose images are seen on a phone. i’m giving my life to my art, my soul is in it, my images are there so one can FEEL and making them huge seems to encompass that. @artcentralbankbahamas @vorges66 mr uli and his kids, emmy @liketheeaward and zeke, of art central bahamas showed us southern hospitality that reminded me of home. they were generous enough to let us stay with them; we all danced and ate together the whole trip. the kids showed us their favourite beach spots, and we gave them an art workshop, thankful for extra hands. it was amazing to print the art, and get to assemble and install it ourselves. mr uli was nothing short of professional and reminded me to feel proud of how far i’ve come, not discouraged. it was a joy to talk in depth about life with such an educated art curator and kinda crazy trying to explain exactly how the last ten years in art have gone. he was like your first music video has 41 million views? uh yessir. my family made it. and i came home to do fashion editorials thru national state parks. it’s a long story…haha. maybe i needed a reminder that people can be good, and things can work out beyond your wildest dreams. that they have already for me. thank you @giveton for taking me home with you 🌊 nassau is a truly magical place.

bahamas 2026. i’ve been typing all morning, trying to put the beautiful experience into words, but my writing isn’t quite cutting it yet, so i’m jumping to outfits worn. @timothyryanelliott and i never took a honeymoon, so i decided to wear white clothes i already owned the whole trip. to say we’ve both been thru a lot the past few years would be an understatement. we just keep getting hit with losses of people we love, this year being no exception. to get time to be together somewhere neither of us had been and just BE, i had no idea how much it was needed. we just stared and stared at the ocean like old people, we danced to the music that comes out of everywhere there, we created art that helped me remember what a giant i am at this, we took multiple slow, restful naps, we met precious new family and saw ole friends. i was really happy, and i’m grateful 🌊💕

SPRING! 💐 gardening is something i do for my mind. i like living in seasons, learning what can grow when, what timing to put seeds into the ground. i went to college for science, this is that continued, mixed with the humility that mother nature brings. fought off caterpillars one year by planting mint and jalapeño which they loathed the next year. but then moths got drawn to our tall sunflowers, haha. new growth gets frozen from texas’s random cold bursts. but tim and i keep tending to our small patch of earth. my memaw lived thru the great depression and often reminded me that a lawn was a sign that your family didn’t need food. so i’ve learned enough to grow in it year round, all seasons. not a farm. that’s way more math. but enough for two people to save money on herbs, lettuces, tomatos, collard greens, onion, chive, peppers, flowers. and a lot of our neighbors know our garden which makes me happy. i see a lot of folks stop to take a quick picture, and i feel good to have a home that gives and radiates. my life outside the fast industry, which i love for my fast mind, is very simple; i live semi-retired in community with really kind, sweet folks and my cats. it’s beautiful, and i’m thankful 💐

i’m going back to making my own art again. i used to. before expectation. outside opinion on what would sell. i made stories that i wanted to see, a woman’s gaze. truthfully, i’ve been unsuccessfully trying to find my place in photography the last few years...did a few weddings. did some family portraits. i’ve done big corporate jobs. all of it made me run screaming back to outside. so art photographer it is. this is the year i’ll have to reconnect to magazines and brands, they do editorial. may even have to look into an agency or management again. grants become relevant when you want to make your own art. it’s time to level up, not quit as my brain says. facing a world of new relieved to go back to making what’s in my head. avec @mollyotalbert

“when a cat falls out of a tree, it lets go of itself. the cat becomes completely relaxed, and lands lightly on the ground. but if a cat were about to fall out of a tree and suddenly make up its mind that it didn’t want to fall, it would become tense and rigid, and would be just a bag of broken bones upon landing. in the same way, it is the philosophy of the tao that we are all falling off a tree, at every moment of our lives. as a matter of fact, the moment we were born we were kicked off a precipice and we are falling, and there is nothing that can stop it. so instead of living in a state of chronic tension, and clinging to all sorts of things that are actually falling with us because the whole world is impermanent, be like a cat.” – alan watts

“love brought you here. if you trusted love this far, don’t panic now.” -james baldwin @remfu forever 🌹💕still one of the best photos i’ve taken. ☁️📷 i’ve been stepping up to the bigger things lately, mainly as a result of loss, i’ve gone thru the worst, may as well try for the best now. but it’s scaring the heck outta me, haha. sometimes i see how far i’ve come, no support or net, and i’m so proud…but also identity crisis is there. i can’t be some artist working big job to big job, i’m an 8-5er. i grinded and grinded 18 hours a day, medical school student loan debt squeezing every cent, and then got set free in art. i’m debt-free now, my time is mine, but your body has to want it. want to create. want to see. art isn’t the grind. it has to rest to receive new ideas. it has to meet energy when it arrives, create right then, or the idea will flow to someone else. i make art because i’m not always very good at staying calm, people forget that about me. i need to work for myself, have slow days, think, make. it’s all been a result of me clinging to sanity while taking a job that is a literal rollercoaster. the irony. but here i am, still standing, still loving, still making. love carried me this far, trying to hear james baldwin in my head.