2025 09 03
Playing music alone in the park. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
As I learn to navigate being an artist, I think it’s vital to manage your voice. What are you saying, both literally and visually through your work. To be candid, this is not something I’m good at. I’m not even sure it’s something I want to be good at. This is perhaps the biggest hurdle that has been keeping me relegated to an artistic tradesperson.
I was reminded this week that the things you say and do are interpreted differently by every single person digesting them. Perhaps it’s an ego thing, but I often forget this and speak as though we’re all on the same page. We’re all in on the same knowledge and have the same perspectives, when clearly the exact opposite is true.
I think one of the amazing things about art is that is unifies and bridges gaps between everyone’s unique perspectives. This is not a profound statement by any means, and perhaps I should’ve been writing this a few decades ago as a student, but I mean it merely as a reminder to myself. Focus more on what I want to say through my work, and less on posting stuff just because: it’s pretty; I’m supposed to; to feed the algorithm; to remind people I exist.
We all can play music alone in the park, but those of us playing with purpose will find the audience they are seeking.
-Clayton
2025 09 02
RIP Don’t Fret. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Have I mentioned I run a photobook shop now? www.realmbooks.co
I’m busy adding a dozen or more new titles to the website over the next few days. Check it out, and buy a book maybe?! All the money we make on books, for the foreseeable future, goes to purchasing more books. It’s just smart business. See you on Shark Tank!
-Clayton
2025 09 01
Industry. Lemont, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Today was one of those days I got my ass handed to me. Rejection after rejection. Every single job I was bidding on myself and every hold on the studio had on the calendar evaporated into thin air as the world reminded me I am mortal and shit is hard. Then, as icing on the shit sandwich, the bank alerted me that our brand new Realm bookshop credit card had been stolen from my mailbox (along with a few new shirts I was excited to wear) and used at Target to try and purchase $2,000 worth of stuff.
With all this crap happening, my only response can be to take a deep breath or two and refocus my energies back onto myself and the work I’m excited to make. I’m at the studio working on a personal zine and, as I type this, my watch has alerted me that Marine Layer has refunded me for my stolen clothing. Deep breath. Deep breath.
One good thing that happened was this video (below) popped into my feed. It’s a glorious video, insanely well made, and a nice reminder on this difficult day about how dedication to a craft tends to pay off in the long run.
-Clayton
2025 08 31
A tree disappears into the distance. Bloomington, Indiana. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
In “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” C.S. Lewis goes all-in on a vision of democratic decline. His writing from seventy-or-so years ago hit me like a slap to the face while our democracy appears to be failing all around us. The read is worth you time (as is his book I found it in: The Screwtape Letters), but I only bring it up to lay out the scene for today’s short story.
Perhaps it was my mood affecting me; on a rare day off, while doing house chores, dripping in sweat, I opened my email to see a message from a producer asking me to get him an image pull by the end of the day. Everything is always needed immediately in my business. What would normally be a nice thing to see (someone potentially interested in you working on a project), on this day struck me as being so frustrating that I reconsidered my entire career. Clearly, this specific incident, while slightly annoying in its timing (I’d really needed this day to catch up on house chores I’d been neglecting!), was more so a reminder of bigger concerns and frustrations with the industry (won’t get into all that now). Regardless of why I was frustrated, it was another detail that put me over the edge this specific day: I didn’t like the specific client I would be making the work for.
While I was having my existential crisis, I reached out to a number of trusted friends to get their opinion on my dilemma. The client, you see, was one that hasn’t had much good PR recently. Quite the opposite, in fact. I figured the trusted council I received would at least somewhat mirror my reluctance to drop everything to help out this particular corporation, however, without fail everyone told me, simply: take the money! In my head, it was a lose-lose situation. The universe was testing me and I didn’t even fully understand the potential consequences, I just knew it was somehow a fork-in-the-road moment.
I don’t think I’m unique in feeling like not much is working these days. It’s not just my job and my industry, it’s most peoples’. This, perhaps, was my biggest takeaway from the incident, which is now well behind me (I didn’t get the job, but I did try to! I could really use the money, of course). My thinking was that friends would see my frustrations and side with me, but I was instead met with the exact opposite reaction — shit is hard right now and you need to take a win when you can get it.
In trying to end this thought on a positive note, I pondered a way to tie it back towards The Screwtape Letters. But since this incident occurred, screwworm has entered the United States, so perhaps it is more appropriate to end it in dismay. Stay sane out there.
-Clayton
2025 08 30
Wild house. Milwaukee, Wisconsin. August, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Summer is nearly over and we haven’t made it up to Milwaukee once yet! I’m bummed about this. We also never made it to Cedar Point, or Six Flags, or Pittsburgh, or Bob Chin’s Crab House. There’s always next year, I guess. Until there’s not.
-Clayton
2025 08 28
Haley at Consignment Lounge, Chicago, Illinois. June 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Yes, behind on posting again. We’ve been out visiting family over the weekend. Specifically, at my sister’s new spot in rural Illinois. Lots of fun and lots of photos, as well. I’m so behind on editing. Aiming to get a bunch of that done this coming week, which will hopefully then lead to more regularly-scheduled posting around here.
-Clayton
2025 08 27
Catalpa tree and sunset storm clouds. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 08 24
Side of house at sunset. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 08 23
It’s important to have friends. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
A quick self check-in today, as I scramble to get a bunch of shit done before tomorrow’s tenth Realm photobook and portrait popup. I’ve been putting a lot of hours into this new side project (thanks, Covid!), and it’s important to take a moment to consider why. The monetary gain is far from guaranteed, so why sink countless hours of my already precious time into an endeavor with no promise of success? There are many reasons, really, most of which I won’t get into here today. But perhaps the biggest reason for doing a photobook popup shop, for me, is to get out of my comfort zone. Much as this here blog has been an outlet for me to post dumb photos on the internet for not many people to look at, the larger mission is to retrain my brain to see and think about things differently than I had previously. To expand my horizons.
This image is one I’m a fan of and it was made solely because I was out of the house working a Realm popup. While this example is quite literal (and you don’t need a bookshop to get out of the house and make photos), the larger benefits of putting time into a book shop have all been far more indirect and even abstract. The simple act of spending time looking at the work of other talented photographers has felt a lot like school (in a good way, not the shitty way). It has reshaped my view of what is possible with my own photography and it has changed the way I see my relationship with the medium and that has me quite excited. And perhaps most importantly, I’m making new connections and forming new friendships with other photo-obsessed humans like myself.
Yesterday, our humble lil Realm got its business banking account (after snagging an LLC and EIN the week prior), so we are legit in the eyes of our government. I hope that in the weeks and months to come, we can turn the venture into something that both feels legit to us and to the broader photography community in Chicago and beyond. Stop by Parson’s tomorrow (Sunday) from 12-6pm and see what we have going on. It should be a fun one.
-Clayton
2025 08 20
Free chair (free advice). Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
Agency. It’s something that, when I look back, seems to account for quite a lot of my success through the years. I don’t think it’s even something I’ve actively worked to improve. Maybe it’s luck, maybe it’s learned, probably it’s a bit of both.
I’m not going to write some big in-depth blog post about how valuable agency is today, but instead I’d like to link to two things I ingested that both made me feel slightly better about our mostly-automated futures and felt like valuable calls to actions in a way that might help me improve on myself (and perhaps you, too).
First, a recent favorite thinker of mine, Cate Hall, dedicated her Ted Talk to the subject. You can watch that talk here.
Second, a web search of the quote she mentioned in the talk led me to this blog post, which does a nice job of summing things up from a tech perspective.
And now I get back to getting shit done… how agentic of me.
-Clayton
2025 08 19
It’s me (Covid free)! See You Soon, Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
I’m on day it feels like twelve of having covid but it seems like I’m about out of the woods (* knocks on wood *…long covid terrifies me). One upside to being sick for a week is that I’ve had a lot of downtime. I’ve put much of that towards building (yet another) website for our Realm photobook popup. I’m aiming to get a soft launch up in the next week or so, and will drop the info here when it’s live.
One really exciting benefit to putting all of this time into selling other peoples’ photography is that I’m schooling myself on many things I didn’t know that I should’ve known. Having somewhat neglected the photo world (esp the fine art part of it) for many years myself, it’s been refreshing to jump back in headfirst and fully submerge myself in all-things-photography. My inspiration levels are quite high, and while I have no shortage of images to share currently, I’m still quite excited to get back out and make new work exploring new areas of the field.
-Clayton
2025 08 18
Fancy frog artwork of Ellie Pritts. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
As I continue to be couch-ridden as my body rids itself of this year’s Covid variety, my intake of random youtube videos remains steady. This video (below) popped into my feed likely due to the camera tech review, which I could care less about, but I’m glad it did! Yes, the technology is remarkable. I’ve been itching to play with a probe lens for years now (second in excitement only to my urge to shoot anamorphic lenses). While these things get me excited, they are also telling (to me). The simple fact that I have not made the effort to make it happen, to shoot some videos with probes and squished video, tells me that my level of passion isn’t quite there (compared to still photography). This is not to say things may change, but after some recent efforts to get back into shooting motion again, it’s the editing step that is a roadblock for me. My brain and my body resisting at all costs because it knows. It has been there before. Trapped in a room all hours of the day, as days stretch into weeks and time passes without your participation in it.
The other takeaway was less personal and more from a broad industry-perspective. The tools available now to even the casual shooter are remarkable. This trend will only continue, further eroding the previously-huge advantage high-end photo and video makers once had. It used to be wildly difficult and even more expensive to produce the level of quality casual youtube kids are now dropping weekly. With that, of course, comes the further reduction in rates being paid to execute this work for the people who want it made (which is also increasingly less as ad spend dollars move more and more to social media native content).
All that said, check out the video they put together with this cool tech! It’s really impressive, even with the faux-Attenborough VO (which also enforces my sentiments, I think).
-Clayton
2025 08 17
Skyline at sunset as seen from the Ike. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
It’s an always-elusive sight: the Chicago skyline as you’re driving back into town, the setting sun low on the horizon, bouncing light off the massive towers of glass and steel back into your direction. Lit up brilliantly, contrasted by the almost-night’s sky in the space beyond, the sight is elusive because managing to capture its brilliance in a photo is near impossible. For me, it’s more of a feeling I get at this time of day. People are on the move, going places and doing things. There’s an energy in the air. Aside from the traffic that comes along with it, it’s my favorite time of day to be in a big city.
While sitting on the couch recovering from Covid, youtube served me the video below and it brought a big smile to my face. As a hopeless cheerleader for the city of Chicago, it’s very cool to see creative young people doing all of the things I myself wish to do. If only I was a bit younger, I’d start a magazine. If only I had a bit more time on my hands, I’d get a creative agency going. I shouldn’t sell myself too short, I’m doing plenty of cool things (imo), but there’s a definitive feeling of being old and out of touch that often holds me back these days. Play to your strengths, I tell myself. Get started on that epic Sears Roebuck & Company biopic screenplay, I tell myself. Jokes?
-Clayton
2025 08 16
That Tiny House. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I think it’s time to start a new ongoing series. That Tiny House. You may know it, you probably don’t love it as much as I do, but there she is!
In other news, I got Covid. In other other news, I think I may ditch this blog platform… it’s both a poor way to showcase my writing and a bad platform for sharing images. But yet another personal project is not what I need right now, so we’ll stick with it for the time being.
-Clayton
2025 08 15
I can do some donuts, but should I mow the lawn? Dodgeville, Wisconsin. April, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Can vs Should
I think one of the big secrets of life is finding the balance between what can you do and what should you do. Maybe this is an obvious observation, but my sense tells me that far too many of us exist quite firmly within one mindset or the other.
On my commute to work today, I waited to cross a busy street downtown while two fellow humans waited alongside me. Well before the walk sign told us it was okay to continue onward, one of the fellow humans took off, wildly swaying his arms as if conducting a symphony none of us could hear. The other fellow human decided this behavior was unacceptable and shouted at him in a scolding manner. Faced with two differing perspectives of the situation in front of me, my immediate response was to side with the guy now half way across the street, enjoying his morning and getting to his destination faster than us, while simultaneously acknowledging the rule-follower that I, too, noticed the weird scenario playing out in front of us. We bonded and I let him be acknowledged, but inside I knew the other guy had things figured out.
This is not to say that I’m some kind of special person capable of playing both sides of the field. This is not to say that I’m standing on flimsy morals, incapable of choosing a side and standing firm. Instead, I would argue that it’s good practice to live a bit in both worlds. To be the human who can appreciate wacky behavior while understanding the rent still comes due at the end of the month.
Can I: fuck around, make noise, drink and eat, slack off, do dumb shit, play, experiment, go for broke
Should I: make nice, be polite, do what I’m told, be responsible, save up and plan ahead, pay my taxes
Why not do both? Perhaps I’m half-assing my way through life, but this is my method. When I’m spending a bit too much time coloring within the lines, I then need to remember to paint a suit with grass.
“There’s a fine line between being a kook and being an artist, and I definitely trample it as much as I can.”
-Gene Pool Harding
(via Meaghan Garvey’s SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE 78)
-Clayton