Meet Elisabeth grandma” Toft | Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Elisabeth “grandma” Toft and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Elisabeth “grandma”, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
Honestly, when I started Elevated Locals I wasn’t thinking of creating content, becoming the media company we are today, or anything involving photography or videography – I just wanted free lift tickets at snow resorts for me and my friends. Creating a blog and telling snow stories was the idea, and it worked – we got all the lift tickets!
That blog morphed into us shooting every day on the hill, and never not thinking of different ways to show up in the snow world – and that led to the love of creating content.
Meanwhile there was still the summer part of the year, I spend the summers #WorkinForThatSnow in production and as a stagehand in New York City. Everyday, I saw the similarities of graffiti/ street art vs snowboarding/skiing. Both of these things that I love consist of temporary lines; temporary lines on snow and temporary lines on walls. I began to mix the two worlds together, throwing art shows and producing our artist collabs. (We bring in artists that we know and adore to create special pieces for our clothing.)
Then came our podcast – Workin For That Snow, we wanted to showcase all the people working so hard behind the scenes of the snow world. Their stories were exciting, inspiring and heart wrenching – these stories needed to be shared.
This podcast brought me to the web series collab with Coalition Snow, “Our Lens”. Our Lens is a collection of snow vision stories celebrating the diverse, radiant perspectives of individuals in the Mountaintop BIPOC community.
Our friends and supporters helped us develop all of the components of Elevated Locals – photographs, videos, merch, podcast, and web-series. It wasn’t one concrete business idea, our community helped us grow and transform.

Please tell us more about your work. We’d love to hear what sets you apart from others, what you are most proud of or excited about. How did you get to where you are today professionally. Was it easy? If not, how did you overcome the challenges? What are the lessons you’ve learned along the way. What do you want the world to know about you or your brand and story?
When asked “What are you most proud of?” my immediate answer was our “resume.” Then, I thought about the question, and although I am so proud of our list of projects; I am most proud of our supporters. Our community is great, and I am so proud that we have such a great love from people around the world.

The Elevated Locals perspective and background sets us apart from other media companies. Our odd and edgy creations welcome the weird and wild.

Elevated Locals wants to tell your story. We love how different you are. Let’s go slide around on snow, and make some art.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
My husband, Q has been with me through every wild, impossible idea. He makes me strong and helps me believe in myself. My family is also my everything – helping me with ideas, editing skills, and calming techniques every moment of everyday. Thank you to my lil Pizza – who teaches me photography and helps me find my voice.
All the members of the Elevated Locals team – thanks for workin so hard and putting up with me.
Thank you to our community for your support!!!!
(picture me getting pushed off the stage as my shoutout list gets longer and longer…..)

Website: https://www.elevatedlocals.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/elevatedlocals

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/elevated-locals

Twitter: https://twitter.com/elevatedlocals

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ElevatedLocals

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCto_8ZUBt_EShF6Bn5YJKRQ/featured

Other: Our Lens Web-series – https://www.coalitionsnow.com/blogs/shoptalk/mountain-top-presents-our-lens-the-mountain-stories-of-people-of-color-who-shred

Image Credits
Mary Toft, Elisabeth Toft