THE ART OF REMAINING: ISSUE 004 COVER STORY WITH ELLY KARAMOH
Words by Bobby Trendz
Photography by Brandon Battle, Karl Ferguson Jr.
Before the celebrity clients, the photographs, the rooms, and the recognition, there was a young Elly Karamoh developing an instinct for beauty—and a conviction that what he possessed was worth pursuing.
His story is not simply one of fashion or proximity to fame. It is about recognizing a gift before the world has language for it, protecting it as it develops, and trusting it as the rooms around you become larger.
For Issue 004, AoD traces Karamoh’s story backward before moving it forward—from childhood, family, and the earliest recognition of his creative instincts to the ambition that eventually carried him into the lives and wardrobes of some of culture’s most recognizable figures.
For years, Karamoh’s influence was most visible through other people. His ideas lived in photographs, on red carpets, across campaigns, and within the carefully constructed images of those who trusted him to shape how they would be seen. He became an architect behind the frame.
Then, gradually, the architect became visible.
That evolution presents a different question: Who do you become when the person behind the work becomes part of the story, too?
In conversation with AoD Editor-in-Chief Bobby Trendz, Karamoh moves beyond the résumé to examine family, sacrifice, cultural identity, ambition, self-belief, proximity to fame, and the complicated responsibility of becoming increasingly visible without losing sight of the person who existed before the recognition.
It is a conversation that sits directly at the heart of REMAIN.
Because arrival is only one part of a creative life. Remaining asks something more difficult: how do you evolve without abandoning the instincts that brought you there? How do you sustain relevance without allowing recognition to redefine you?
Karamoh has experienced what so many creatives spend their lives pursuing: access, influence, recognition, and the opportunity to create at an extraordinary level.
But perhaps the more compelling story begins after arrival.
When the world finally sees what you have always seen in yourself, what does it take not simply to arrive—but to remain?
THE INTERVIEW
Bobby Trendz: So, before fashion, celebrity, Paris, America, or even the name people
recognize today, who was Elly Karamoh as a child? Take me back to where you were born, the
home you were raised in, and the earliest vision of yourself that you can remember.
Elly Karamoh: Well, Elly Karamoh as a kid was and is still this electric force, but just imagine it
being four feet tall. He still talks shit; he still talks back. He was very bold. He was very funny,
witty. He had a gift that was disguised as—or portrayed as—different. Everybody looked at him
as if he was different. And at that time,
Continue reading in print
Issue 004
The full story continues in this limited print edition.
Buy the print issue
PRODUCTION
Words by
Bobby Trendz
Photography
Brandon Battle, Karl Ferguson Jr.