Today we’d like to introduce you to Ben Chernivsky.
Ben, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I was an incredibly active and distracted college student – I went to 3 different colleges over a 9 year span before I finally earned a degree in Creative Writing. I wanted to do everything academically – writing, photography, science. College was incredibly rewarding, but there were just too many choices for me to make. I’m so glad to be done with college, because at the time I was riddled with indecision through those 9 years. The one constant companion I had throughout those years was my camera. No matter what I studied, I knew I loved photography.
When I shot my first wedding back in 2005, wedding photographers were not really well respected. Most photographers wouldn’t be proud to call themselves wedding photographers. So I went into my first wedding not taking it too seriously. But, I put my heart into everything, so I tried my best to be proud of what I created for that first wedding I photographed. There was an incredible online community of creative wedding photographers at the time – before the days of Facebook groups, everyone connected online through community forums. I’m lucky to have found an amazing online forum of creative wedding photographers who offered feedback and conversation. It really fueled me to be a better photographer – almost more than any classroom experience.
Let’s fast forward this story – after getting married in 2010, I realized that indecision was not serving me too well. I had to commit to one type of photography in order to become the photographer and person I wanted to become. Although I had dreams of being a National Geographic photographer (I mean, who doesn’t lol?!), I really wanted a stable family life, and I knew I wanted kids of my own. Although it wasn’t my dream to be a wedding photographer, it was really artistically fulfilling, and I loved the wedding atmosphere. Chicago is a ripe market, so I knew there was money in it, too.
After committing full-time to wedding photography, things really started to take off. I went from working on a desk in our 1 bedroom apartment, to getting an office space, upgrading to a creative loft, and then finally expanding to a studio space in the city. I rebranded my company so I could start working with a creative team rather than focus 100% on my own talents as a wedding photographer. I worked solo for a few years, and then started hiring employees to help expand my company. Every step I’ve taken has been seriously scary as shit – investing money in advertising or larger studio space, and trusting my company in the hands of other people. But each step has been so rewarding, and I’m really happy with where things are. It’s so much fun to work with a group of talented photographers.
I also run a company called Gifyyy. Back in 2014 I got this crazy idea for a photo booth, because I was really getting sick of seeing the same photo booth at every wedding. I also knew other wedding photographers would love it, so I manufactured an original photo booth from the ground up. Now it’s a totally separate company from my wedding photography brand, and we’ve sold over 150 photo booths around the world. It’s another super exciting venture that came from my dedication to wedding photography. It’s such an amazing industry with so much potential, even though a lot of people say it’s oversaturated with creatives and business owners. It IS a very saturated market, but there’s lots of opportunity for originality and ingenuity if you have the heart and the courage.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
No fulfilling pathway in life is ever smooth. I’m kinda known for begging for challenges in my life, so I really welcome new opportunities for growth. The way I see it, if you’re not being challenged, then you are not really growing into what you want to really become in life. So have there been struggles? Absolutely. Most of my struggles are the internal ones, such as confidence, doubt, fear. I constantly feel like I’m not doing good enough, and for years I struggled with doubting myself. My sense of self was far from complete.
One of my biggest challenges was letting go of what I thought were my dreams. I so wanted to be a strong documentary photographer, traveling the world, exposing all the crappy shit humans did to each other. Or I wanted to focus on inspiring stories of amazing people. I realized it was all in vain – I was way too zealous, and I wasn’t taking the practical steps to just becoming a better human being myself. It’s hard to swallow that kind of knowledge and realize that all people are basically the same, and circumstances do not define you in life. For me, the circumstances are pretty obvious – white male born in one of the most well-off areas in the entire USA. My upbringing was good, and I went to good public schools. So for me, many struggles are about letting go and finding a sense of joy and internal satisfaction.
Other struggles are really quite boring, to be honest – being scared to invest in advertising, or being scared to invest in other human beings (hiring employees). When you start working with other people, you realize that you not only get their talents, but you also get their challenges in life, too. Now that I run a few businesses, I’m incredibly amazed at how big companies stay organized and are able to hire so many people. So many people think businesses and corporations are terrible, but they’re so ripe with opportunity to do good for the people who work for them. They really are providing for people. I just wish all people knew, all they have to do is stand up for themselves, no matter if they are bagging groceries, driving an Uber, or running 3 businesses – you will have the same challenges in life. You must learn to stand up for yourself.
We’d love to hear more about your business.
I run 3 companies, but I’ll talk about my wedding photography business for the sake of clarity. I run a wedding photo + video studio in Chicago. I’m also one of the lead photographers on the team. We specialize in fine-art documentary photography. It’s all about getting to know our clients and challenging them to discover a bit more about what’s important to them about their wedding day and the people they love. So it’s not just about photographing pretty stuff – we really like getting to the heart about why people are celebrating their marriage. When you get to the heart, it’s really easy to create photographs that people honestly connect to.
I’m proud that This Is Feeling really stands for its couples. We like to answer our couple’s questions with our own questions about them. So many companies out there just tell couples what to do with their wedding – but really the most amazing things about weddings are watching how each one is an individual expression of the couple. So yeah, of course, we love helping our couples, but we go one step further with just about everything. I hate that wedding photography has become about pretty photographs. There’s so much bullshit out there, and 90% of photography is about perception. So yeah, we do our best to cut through the bullshit… and still, deliver amazing photographs that the couple actually emotionally connect to.
Besides that, I’m also really proud of our business model. There are basically 2 types of wedding photo businesses out there – independents (companies run by 1 person), and then HUGE wedding studios with like 50 or 60 independent contract photographers. We’re a really beautiful mix of those two – you get the independent quality from a small, dedicated team of incredible photographers. There are lots of advantages of working with a team of people, but most wedding photo studios with lots of employees don’t give the attention and care to the clients that they should get from a photographer. We’re able to give our couples that personal quality with our team. I’m really proud of that. And I just feel good about paying my employees for the work they do. Lots of photographers struggle out there and barely make any money. It’s hard to be a creative these days. I do my best to stand for my photographers and provide a healthy lifestyle to them.
What were you like growing up?
Now that I have 2 kids, I can see so much about what I was like growing up. I was wild, untamed, and very driven as a child. I think I drove my parents nuts because I never accepted no for an answer.
Honestly, I’m very heart-driven. When I believe something, I go 100%. This is a good quality, but it can also be very self-serving at times, so I’ve had to learn to calm down a bit and be patient with myself. I’m so driven to do things, that I often overwhelm myself and others around me.
I’m very competitive, and most people say I’m very serious about all things in life. And I am. I’m serious. I like having hard conversations with people. I remember this one time I was at a party talking with someone, and they stopped me and just said: “Ben, man, you are so intense, what’s with all these questions?” It really threw me off, but I’ve come to like that about myself. Why not just dive in and talk about the real things in life?
That’s basically how I’ve always been my entire life. Let’s go deep, you know?
Contact Info:
- Address: 2215 S. Ford Ave, STE 302, Chicago, IL. 60616
- Website: www.ThisIsFeeling.com
- Phone: 630-640-2362
- Email: hello@thisisfeeling.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisisfeeling/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thisisfeeling
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/this-is-feeling-photography-chicago
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