Meet Chase Lewis | Producer, Photographer, Lifestyle Connoisseur

We had the good fortune of connecting with Chase Lewis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Chase, can you share the most important lesson you’ve learned over the course of your career?
This might sound a bit cliché, but honestly the most important lesson that my career has taught me is to trust the process and the timing. A common saying is that “what is for you (or if you are spiritual, what God has planned for you) cannot be taken from you,” and I truly believe that. From a young age, I feel like I’ve always had a clear view of what I’ve wanted my life and career to look like, or at least clear milestones that I’ve always wanted to accomplish, and I’ve done a pretty decent job at keeping them in sight. I came to the realization while hiking recently, which I do often for both wellness and spirituality, that I need to stop checking in with myself by asking “what am I doing?” To an extent, I’ve always known the “what”, but the “how” was the greater mystery. Now, as I look at my career so far, I’m amazed by how many things have come to fruition in ways that I could’ve never imagined, and oftentimes even better than expected. In retrospect, I can clearly see why certain things did not happen on *my* timeline, and why that was truly a blessing in disguise.

The path that my career has taken is certainly one that I could’ve never anticipated nor planned for, which is funny because I’m huge planner, often to my own detriment. Perfect example, I always thought that landing my dream role at Condé Nast was something I’d spend much of my career working up to, but to my surprise it ended up being my second job out of college. Once I learned to accept that my life and career are truly on God’s timing, I kind of started to have fun with it, and leaving things up to God almost gave me a sense of comic relief. It’s like, rather than stressing myself out, I just started to say “ok, I don’t know how all of this will come together, but I trust that it will, and I’m just going to go along for the ride”…which is often followed by me closing my laptop and going to sleep. As long as you keep your aspirations in sight, I’ve learned that the universe will create a way to either bring them to you, or bring you to them, and everything can be accomplished much faster or slower than think. Set your intentions and just do your best to enjoy the ride.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
My art primarily takes shape in the form of photography and videography, which is split between my employment at Condé Nast & my business as a hospitality and brand photographer. At Condé, I’ve been a video producer mainly on the Architectural Digest team over the past three years, and I am excited to announce here that I will be switching over to the Vogue team in the coming weeks. During my time at AD, I have been fortunate to primarily produce our celebrity home tour series, “Open Door,” but my true love for architecture and design makes every video that I work on for the brand just as exciting as the last. Although I’ve thankfully worked on two videos for Vogue already, I look forward to embracing the fashionisto in me and supporting a hardworking team that has always been so welcoming to me in the past.

As for my personal and freelance photography, that actually started out as a hobby when my parents purchased one of our first DSLRs in like 2005, a Nikon D50 that I still occasionally shoot with to this day. At first, I started out taking photos of nature on weekend road trips with my family, capturing anything from birds and flowers to mountain ranges and much of the Chesapeake Bay. Similar to many other photographers though, I just never put the camera down from there. Now, my subject matter primarily focuses on hotels, restaurants, and other stylish scenery that I encounter organically, or that I am hired to shoot for hospitality brands. When it comes to what I feel sets me apart from others in this field, I’d interestingly say that it’s my ability to produce high quality imagery, or “capture the essence of the worlds finest establishments” as I like to say, using essentially as little as possible. I’m working on embracing this and seeing it as a strength, especially because it allows me to keep a small footprint in public spaces like a restaurant or hotel lobby, but I’m usually able to do without extra gear or artificial lighting to pull off some of my best shots, and I credit my creative eye for seeing the beauty and opportunity in what is naturally in front of me. Admittedly, there is still a lot that I have yet to learn when it comes to the technical side of photography, so I don’t want it to seem like crediting “my eye” is just a cop-out, but I want to shake this idea that the more gear someone has, the more professional or talented they are.

I am still growing and developing as a photographer, but I believe that my creative eye is what has also fueled my career as a producer, which combined with me being a stereotypically organized Virgo, has taken me pretty far. Fortunately, the only part that I feel comes “easy” is my natural eye for visually pleasing compositions, so I find comfort in being able to lean on my talent as my foundation because everything else surrounding it is truly the hard part. There are millions – actually, now billions of photographers in this world given the power of our cell phone cameras today, so finding a way to stand out, especially in the realm of lifestyle and brand photography, is definitely a challenge that I am still overcoming. One lesson that I have learned along the way though, especially in the age of Instagram and social media algorithms, is that consistency in sharing your work is greater than perfection when it comes to gaining more exposure. Notice though that I said “perfection” rather than “quality,” which I think is extremely important to distinguish between. Currently, I am working on releasing my tendency to overthink and plan for perfection, and sacrifice that to instead become a master of consistency. It is all a work in progress, but ultimately I’d like the world to enjoy how I see beauty in the things around me, and to get to know me through the imagery that I capture, which are all reflections of different stages of my life.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
This is easy. Let me just share the loose itinerary that I created three months ago when my best friend came to visit me from New York! I must preface this by saying that this is intentionally very “LA,” and I often frequent places that are more low-key in Silver Lake and Malibu, but I love the range of experiences that different neighborhoods in LA have to offer.

Thursday
– Pick up from airport
– Wine & charcuterie at home

Friday
– Light breakfast @ home or smoothies at Erewhon (I’ve actually never had an Erewhon smoothie, I was just using my best friend visiting as an excuse to justify the price…)
– Hike in Pacific Palisades at Los Leones
– Breakfast @ Malibu Farm / Malibu Country Kitchen
– Walk around Malibu Country Mart/Lumber Yard & visit Kith Malibu
– Shower & rest @ home
– Martini happy hour @ Dante Beverly Hills
– Dinner @ Nobu Malibu or Uchi
– Chill night @ Tower Bar / Edition Rooftop / Tropicana Pool at the Roosevelt – or – Night out @ The Sunset at Edition / Apt 200 / Event

Saturday
– Brunch @ Elephante / Casa Madera / Lavo / Harriets
– Coffee @ Pantry at MadHappy or Verve
– Beach day at Point Dume or Broad Beach
– Shower & rest @ home
– Dinner @ Edition Rooftop
– Chill night @ Tower Bar / Edition Rooftop / Tropicana Pool at the Roosevelt – or – Night out @ Edition / Apt 200 / Event (whichever we didn’t do the night before)

Sunday
– Protein pancakes @ home – or – Light breakfast @ Sqirl / Marco Polo / Community Goods / Courage Bagels
– Sunday Swim Social @ Silver Lake Pool & Inn
– Lunch / walk around Silver Lake
– Shower & rest @ home
– Early dinner @ Sugarfish

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I tell people everyday that I would not be the person I am if it weren’t for my parents, especially my Dad. I am extremely blessed to have a father who led by example and showed me all that life has to offer at an early age. Funny enough, we are both Virgos (our birthdays are only 4 days apart) and it definitely shows. Right after his high school years, my dad went directly into the music industry, where his talents and genuine love for music and the business behind it allowed him to excel to an executive level. Working back and forth between New York and D.C., my father, Roland Lewis, played a fundamental role in developing many of music’s legendary names such as Whitney Houston, Toni Braxton, TLC, and Maxwell. Of course, I can only aspire to be half as accomplished as he is, but I think you can start to see where I get it from.

My dad – well, both of my parents really, always made a point to introduce me to new experiences and expose me to different rooms, and before I even completed elementary school, I remember sitting in my dad’s office as he reviewed new music videos, and attending my mom’s (Wanda Lewis) many black tie events within the hospitality industry. Of course, this same level of exposure continued outside of my parents’ careers, as we often traveled as a family for leisure, which taught me firsthand what being in the lap of luxury looked like. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to make it seem like I came from wealth by any means, but the experiences that my parents were able to introduce me to truly set the groundwork for my many aspirations.

Thankfully, since I always saw how hard they worked, I learned to treat any luxuries that I might’ve experienced as the fruits of their labor and talents, rather than something that I was entitled to or that came easy. My father’s career in the entertainment industry set the framework for what I wanted out of my own, and I owe everything to my parents for their many sacrifices that set me up for a successful career of my own.

Website: https://courtesyofchase.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/chasedlewis

Linkedin: http://linkedin.com/in/chasedlewis/

Other: Photography Instagram: @courtesyofchase
TikTok: @chasedlewis

Image Credits
Chase Lewis, Serrandon, Landrie Hatcher