Last Updated on 01/05/2026 by Nilofer Khan
Chase Jarvis is a name that has been quite prominent in the photography circles. A photographer, director, author, and entrepreneur, Jarvis has helped millions of people pick up a camera and make a living from it. However, in the past year, the company’s YouTube Channel has stopped uploading conversations with other photographers, while the blog is floating with articles about AI image generation tools. So, what exactly happened, and where is he now?
The lead image is a screenshot of Chase Jarvis’ book.
A self-taught photographer, Jarvis has worked with clients such as Apple, Nike, Red Bull, and others, making him a notable figure in commercial photography. In the late 2000s, he shot to fame due to his expertise, the kind of images he created, and his ability to utilize cellphone photography at a time when it was still in its early stages. He released his book, The Best Camera: Is the One That’s With You, in 2009, which led to increased recognition. In fact, I remember seeing his images in Better Photography, India’s leading photography magazine that recently shut down.
Chase Jarvis’s entrepreneurial instincts never waned. He created Best Camera, a photo-sharing app that predates Instagram, but he eventually lost out to the latter. Then, in 2010, he co-founded CreativeLive with Craig Swanson, an online platform that is designed to livestream photography-related interviews and tutorials. The duo aimed to democratize photography, and they invited the most prominent names in photography and the design industry. From thousands of viewers in its early days, the platform grew to gain millions of followers and also generated profits along the way. In fact, in 2014, Jarvis was officially the CEO of the company.
Until the mid-2010s, the company enjoyed its fame, introducing its mobile apps and a partnership with Apple, and it also reached a point where it was acquired. In 2021, Fiverr, an Israeli-based freelance marketplace, bought CreativeLive. The platform retained its identity, but despite the global following, the brand itself gradually faced challenges. The pandemic happened, and in September 2025, Chase Jarvis announced the close of the platform.
Taking to Instagram, Jarvis explained this, “They acquired Creative Live in 2021. I transitioned with that company for a year, and I left in 2022, in part because I saw that they were probably not going to keep the brand like they said they were going to in the acquisition. Again, totally normal.” While he wanted to buy the platform back a year later, he never heard back from the CEO. The company is reportedly set to cease operations by December 31, 2025, which means that current subscribers will need to download the classes before this date.
So, where does Chase Jarvis go from here? With 103,000 followers on Instagram, the photographer states that he is “firing up” and will return soon with ventures he has created or is co-creating with others. This includes a media platform designed specifically to replace Creative Live. As he said in his video: “Imagine podcasts, tools, articles, community, community around helping creators and entrepreneurs navigate this next, which is bound to be a very tricky chapter with AI. There’s so much to know, so much to be excited about, to navigate from a business perspective, from a creative perspective.”
It appears that Jarvis has a lot going on, and it appears that the future looks bright for him.