Rising Stars: Meet Jasmine Rutledge of Mt. Washington

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jasmine Rutledge.

Hi Jasmine, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Hello, my name is Jasmine Marie Rutledge. Nice to meet you!

I’d like to think my story starts with me, but I wouldn’t be who I am without my parents and the people who have been part of my life. My parents, Penny and Melvin, met in school in Minnesota, where I was born. I spent about three months there before we moved to Florida. They settled in a town outside Orlando, where I grew up with my two brothers and made them model for me with disposable cameras my parents bought at the store.

It’s a familiar story: we grew up in a small town with our imaginations, our aspirations, and high-speed internet. I was always drawn to creative things, whether acting, singing, playing piano, or creative writing. Eventually, that creativity found its way back to photography, which I rediscovered in high school.

High school wasn’t the best time in my life. I was awkward, lanky, severely depressed, had life changing surgery and unmotivated. I mostly just existed. You know when you’re willing to do anything to avoid feeling something? For me, I wanted to runaway and be someone else. And that meant becoming a model. I wanted to feel better about myself, to “be” someone, and to travel. And, well, it worked. My Payless oxfords and long, lanky legs got me signed to NEXT Models in Miami.

I loved being pulled out of school to model. At 16, I felt like hot shit and I was! I appeared in magazines, walked runways, and booked ads around Florida. I didn’t end up graduating from high school because I was struggling with depression and cared more about the new life I was building than school. But modeling opened the door to a new adventure: living and working in Cape Town, South Africa.

Everything happened so fast, and I always had a camera with me. I still have photographs from that first trip in 2013. I was the first person in my family to travel outside the United States, and I did it alone.

Everywhere I went, I took pictures. I edited them, printed them, and experimented with Polaroids, digital cameras, and VSCO. Whatever I could get my hands on. I moved around a lot: South Beach, New York, London, and eventually Los Angeles. It was while living in New York in 2016 that I started taking photography more seriously.

Again, I wouldn’t be who I am without the people who have been part of my life. In Brooklyn, I lived with Jenny Woods, a photographer whose work I admired before we met. I recognized her photographs because she shot exclusively BW film. She had photographed a girl named Hannah from Florida who I’d worked with on a modeling job in Miami. The images were so high-contrast, intimate, moody, and beautifully composed. They stayed with me.

Jenny and I shot together all the time around Brooklyn, and that period inspired me to pick up a film camera. I was terrible, but I didn’t care. “All the dust on the image? It’s a vibe!” “Muddy, grainy image? I can make it work.” I loved taking pictures and reworking them until I found something that felt right. Along the way, I bought my beloved Mamiya RZ67, a Rolleiflex, and a handful of random 35mm cameras.

In 2022, I decided to take photography seriously as a craft and went to ArtCenter in Pasadena. Modeling can be a tough business. Some months you’re up, and the other months you’re second guessing your whole life. I was curious about building a new life for myself, and school gave me time and space to learn how I wanted to make images. I’m grateful for that experience. It introduced me to artists and image makers who expanded how I thought about the way photographs could look and feel.

Now, near the end of 2026, I’m still a model and I’m also a freelance photographer and visual artist. I’ve photographed for Savage X Fenty and musicians, shown work in group exhibitions, and placed third in an open call. I’m shaping my visual world through fashion editorials and visual art, and moving toward creative direction.

I’m still learning, still moving, and still living through the act of making images. From a townhouse in Orlando, with my brothers in front of my camera, to rooftop photo sessions in Brooklyn, to being here in bed with a million tabs open and different decks to finish I’ve made it this far, and I want to keep expanding and learning every day.

Thank God for photography.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Photography of course has its obstacles. It reminds me a little of modeling, haha. There are ebbs and flows, and stretches when I’m not sure anything is clicking. Then, at some random moment at 5:04 p.m. on a Wednesday it does. I think the work is to keep learning and keep going, even when I can’t see the result yet. I’m grateful to still feel inspired and curious, and to be stubborn enough not to stop.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I’m a photographer and visual artist. I make images that feel a little strange and beautiful, shaped by whatever point of view on life I’m obsessing over at the moment. That work takes different forms from fashion editorials, portraits of musicians, and images for brands.

I’m still figuring out what I’m known for, but I’m most proud of my editorial for Teeth Magazine, “What Remains.” It reflects the world I call Eterna, where I explore transformation, play, our relationship to nature, and the possibility of something larger than ourselves. The story looks at curiosity in fashion in the age of AI, and asks what we can make from what we already have.

That project reminded me that I want to keep building from my own ideas and trusting my point of view. I’m stubborn about how I want to create, and I’ve learned that this stubbornness can be a strength as it keeps me committed to making the work I believe in.

Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
For anyone starting out in photography, my advice is to keep going. Keep a log of what inspires you, and keep it organized. My Capricorn self made a Dropbox folder called “2026 Inspiration,” where I save everything from lighting ideas and concepts to stray thoughts that might turn into images. It’s so helpful to have a place to return to when I want to create.

And experiment! I’m nothing without the time I give myself to play and try things out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://jasminemarierutledge.com
• Instagram: @jasminemarierutledge