Meet Chelsea Silbereis | Documentary Family Photographer

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

Hi Chelsea, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
I started my own business when I was trying for my first pregnancy. I worked as a zookeeper at the time and the time and emotional requirements of that job felt incompatible with my ideal of parenting and the involvement I wanted to have with my children. So I started photographing anything I could get paid to photograph because I thought that would be a flexible business which would allow me to set my schedule and deviate time to my kids. As I became a parent and saw the impact of the photos I was making my passion for making honestly raw photos of family live grew and I was able to focus my business into an artistic and emotional fulfilling endeavor.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My photography work runs along to complimentary tracks. I photographer my own family life in a deeply personal and emotive way and I bring that same ethos to photographing my client’s families. In the beginning it felt like a treasure hunt: how to make a compelling and beautiful photograph within the chaos of a family’s regular day, including their messiness, temper tantrums, whatever happens to cross my lens. But it blossomed into something more. I photograph all of this with a deliberately loving viewpoint. For everyday people this means that they have pictures of themselves being deeply authentic and that can strip away the worries about appearances. It does the same thing for kids: seeing their parents prizing photos of them being messy or mischievous, or crying sends them a very real message that they are loved, unconditionally, for who they are inside.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My favorite (summer) day is to pile the kids and friends onto their bikes, ride to our T stop and take the T into Boston Common. At the Common we play in the playground, swim in the Frog Pond and ride the Carousel. Then we get hot dogs, popsicles and lemonde from one of the carts in the park. After that we take the T back to our bikes and ride home.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are so many who have helped me and cheerlead me even now. It’s so difficult in the arts to not be overwhelmed by imposter syndrome so having people giving you positive affirmation makes a huge difference in the motivation to push on. However, I can say that I would absolutely not be where I am today without Shawna Beckmann. After the birth of my second kiddo, she sat me down and asked me what my ideal business looked like (only photographing full days of families) and how much I needed to make from one of those sessions. Once she knew what my dream was she helped me make a plan of how to get there and was always there to answer my questions as I built my business in a much more intentional way.

Website: https://chelseasilbereis.com

Instagram: @chelseasilbereis

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/408chelsea/videos

Image Credits
Chelsea Silbereis