2026 03 18
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 18

ust a quick Note To Self today: when you have a vision that feels like destiny, that feels like it’s meant to be but it doesn’t work out as you thought it would, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Pivot, change, adjust, and adapt. Things often happen for a reason and sometimes the reasons are good, even when you don’t fully comprehend them.

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2026 03 17
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 17

Yesterday was a tough day in the sense that I became firmly aware that I am stretching myself too thin, doing too many things, without enough support being applied to the main branches of my life. It’s tough because I want to do so many things, and explore all of the ideas stewing in my brain, but I need to learn that it’s better to focus on a few of them at time to ensure I’m giving them enough support to stand on their own.

The catalyst for this feeling was Kevin Coval’s City So Real podcast, which I was a guest on. I was honored to be asked and mostly enjoyed the conversation, however, in typical me fashion was also left regretting much of what was said and not said. There were answers I wish I could revisit and topics I’d wanted to dive into but, as is often the case in the moment, were missed. It’s likely I’m over-thinking things and the conversations was fine, if not even good. But the anxiety I felt afterwards was real nonetheless. So real!

My lasting takeaway is that I need to improve my abilities to fluidly discuss topics I am choosing to focus my energies on. Learning to talk as an artist is as important (if not, realistically, even far more important) than making the art.

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2026 03 14
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 14

Often in my life, a place away from home will become a sort of second home for a period of time. Currently, that place is Louisville. It’s a place I’ve always been fascinated by and even briefly considered making a second home base a decade-or-so back when real estate prices seemed like a steal. The immediate area I was infatuated by was the Clifton area just east of Butchertown. Being familiar with how things change in Chicago, it felt like it was a neighborhood on the rise and within another decade, the place would be filled with bars, restaurants and shops. Admittedly, upon returning a month back, I was completely wrong in this assessment and many of the places I’d previously loved no longer exist . Fortunately, Sergio’s is not one of those places.

The city was largely deserted after getting blanketed with a foot of snow some five days prior. Entire neighborhoods still hadn’t seen a plow and likely never would. Things happen a bit slower down south, I’m told. ā€œAll of the schools canceled classes for the week,ā€ I was also told. Again, using my familiar reference point of Chicago, this just seemed like madness. But you gotta wonder if maybe we’re the mad ones up north, so rushed to get back to normal business. Because the place was deserted, I was able to have a nice long chat with Kelly about all things beer and the history of the building Sergio’s calls home.

Once I was back home, it hit me that I should’ve documented our chat and turned it into content for my everyoneisfamous.com blog. What a missed opportunity, I though, being hard on myself as usual. But maybe I should instead take a page from the Louisville Streets & Sanitation Department and not stress so much about these things.

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2026 03 13
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 13

I made a very similar photo of my sister 20+ years ago on my first digital camera. It was one of the first images I made that got me really excited about making images.

Today I came across the below quote while cleaning up my desktop and it reminded me that I’ve been slacking on posting quotes around here.

ā€œEven in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.ā€

— C.S. Lewis

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2026 03 10: Finding My Focus(es)
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 10: Finding My Focus(es)

I’m still loving black & white these days. The issue I’m having is that I need to sort of reinvent the way I edit and process my images. My entire workflow is a learned behavior and it’s time consuming, slow, and rigid. Lately, I’m finding myself mostly sharing phone images because they are right there in front of me and immediately processed as I shoot them in vsco’s app. While this is clearly a lazy approach, the reality is I hardly have the time to look at my images these days, so anything I shoot with my ā€œrealā€ cameras end up sitting on a hard drive being ignored. When I switched to the Ricoh a few years back, I really enjoyed the newfound control and resolution the raw files gave me when compared to the iphone snaps, however, to get the look and feel of the images to where I want them to be, a not insignificant amount of time is needed.

All that said, I’m finding myself rethinking my entire approach to photography. Instead of constantly snapping images, as is my default method, I’m trying to shoot less — and more specifically, more thoughtfully. This blog will remain my place to play and explore, however, the posts will probably be a bit less constant as they were in the past. I’m finding myself less excited about the endless flow of snapshots that previously I would not hesitate to throw up on the blog. Partly, if I’m being honest, this is a fear of judgement in my abilities, however, I think the bigger reason is far more healthy: I’m figuring out what it is I want to show. The stories I want to tell. And everything else, well, I just ain’t got the time for it!

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2026 03 03
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 03 03

I’m not spending as much time on this here blog lately, mostly because I’ve been nonstop busy with other stuff. Two of those stuffs are related to this above snapshop of Joe!

First of all, the image was made in the first half of 2023, which is where I’ve been pulling images for my second zine project dubbed Daily Bread. That zine is nearing design completion and (hopefully) heading to the printer this week for dummy copy production. I’m aiming for a late April release. In the meantime, I will be posting more images made from that time in my life on the blog here.

Secondly, Joe was just featured on my other other blog, everyoneisfamous.com, along with his partner Maggie. I clearly don’t have time for all this blogging, but I do the best I can. While I miss hanging out here with myself every single day, it’s also been nice to focus on other… stuff.

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2026 02 27
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 27

I stumbled upon this image (made while being a bit too nosy during a Reader assignment) last night, so figured I should post it today after Jesse’s recent passing. He was a towering figure both in Chicago and beyond. My only personal story about Jesse happened on another photo assignment. I was waiting in line to get into a rally featuring Joe Biden and President Clinton back when Obama was president. This was back in my younger and way more politically-aware days, so I was shocked when I turned around only to discover a massive and quiet figure standing directly behind me. It was Jesse Jackson. Me being me, I was too shy to say hello, but I recall wanting to congratulate him on his presidential run back in the Reagan Era, which always stood out to me as impressive.

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2026 02 24
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 24

I always love it when the cars move out of my way.

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2026 02 23: In Search of Myself
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 23: In Search of Myself

In search of higher ground; in search of my next wave; in search of myself.

I wanted to take a moment to attempt to roughly and quickly capture some of the struggle I’m currently going through as a creative in 2026. This won’t be a polished thought piece, but instead likely a jumbled mess of thoughts with the main aim of being helpful to perhaps get me to better understand what I even think about the subject. We write so we can learn how we think, and these days I’m thinking far too many thoughts to even come close to comprehending where my head is at.

I’m doing way too many things and I’m well aware of this. The justifications are:

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2026 02 18: Award-Nominated!
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 18: Award-Nominated!

I sometimes joke that I’m an ā€œAward-Nominated Photographer.ā€ It’s a cute dig at the world of Serious Photography, while letting you know that I don’t take myself too seriously. That said, I must admit that I’ve been having a bit of regret the last few days over my lack of engagement throughout my career. Living in my own world has its perks, but you gotta play the game a bit sometimes, too.

Early in my career, I attempted to do what you’re supposed to do. I was faced with rejection and made a decision that you can’t lose if you don’t play. This protected my ego for a time, but now that I’m an aging photographer posting to a blog with an audience that’s primarily Chinese ai-Bots, I gotta wonder if it was the right call. Okay, so that’s a harsh assessment. But in many ways, I’m back where I started in my photography career. I’m now focusing on things I want to focus on and doing things I want to do. This is giving me an opportunity, of sorts, to do things differently this time around. One of the things I aim to do is play the game. Not obsessively — I’ll never be that guy — but a little bit. Learn the names; meet the faces; submit to the awards and the grants; attend the shows.

You gotta play the game.

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2026 02 16
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 16

Earlier this winter, we made an unplanned stop at the final resting place of Abe Lincoln. While I’d been there previously in high school, I did not remember anything from that visit and found the place to be eerily beautiful. I’ll forever be fascinated by the life of the often-considered best president in our nation’s history.

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2026 02 14: Reach like a Tree
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 14: Reach like a Tree

I have been nonstop lately. Too busy to post. We wrapped a one-night-only photo show last night at the studio and all I can think about this morning is how much time, energy, and work goes into these things we pursue without any promise of a payoff down the road. It really has to be for the love of the game or you risk driving yourself insane. I often find myself slipping towards resentment that things aren’t working as envisioned, or as quickly as desired.

Today is a quick reminder to myself that, like a tree slowly reaching upward into the unknown, my time in this life should be used enjoying the company of birds, a gentle breeze, and doing the things that I’m good at and most enjoy; not in a race to be the tallest tree on the block.

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2026 02 09: old is new
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 09: old is new

What’s old is new again! I think?

While (sort of — it was boring!) watching the Super Bowl last night, I got a bit depressed by the relentless string of glitzy advertisements showing off all of the hot new ai products. It bums me out to consider that our lives will soon be mostly automated by computers. But will they, actually? Just as we begin to use ai to make our lives easier (in theory), we are also turning back to older products and processes, while shunning the same tech that has become so widespread (people are shooting film again, printing books, bricking their phones…).

I was quickly reminded that Super Bowl commercials are often a taste of what soon to be out of fashion. Just before the dot com bust, dancing babies and pet hand puppets filled the time between the big game. A few years back everything was cryptocurrencies. Of course, the internet has not gone away and neither has crypto, but we humans (or maybe it’s just me?) tend to over-stress about big upcoming changes, when in reality, they take lots of time to process.

In the meantime, the ai bots will work nonstop to digest my human brain thoughts and convert them into data points in their massive computer brain, while I putter around wondering where I put my glasses so I can leave the house and make some photos the old fashioned way, with a digital camera (get it?).

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2026 02 07: the bOtS are back
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 07: the bOtS are back

The bots are back! Really, they probably never left. I got a huge spike in traffic the last few days, which was nice to see until I quickly realized it’s most likely the Chinese ai-training robots back for more content sucking. Visitors from China have jumped back up to 75%, so we’ll see if I need to find a new job soon (I promised myself to quit photography if bot traffic hits 100%).

Have a nice weekend! šŸ¤—

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2026 02 06: Louisville b/w
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 06: Louisville b/w

This is an iphone snap (edited to look less like one). I also made some images with my ā€œreal camera,ā€ however, those files always take longer to get to. Maybe I need to change my workflow; maybe I’m just lazy and the phone is too convenient to compete with. Whatever the case, I’ve decided to be less picky about which images I choose to share around here. Previously, I was pretty firm on only using shots made from my Ricoh. These days, I’m using that camera a bit less than I had been, and instead shooting more with the phone again (yuck!) along with my Canon R5. The real camera. That I hope to swap for a Fuji GFX one of these days… but that’s enough gear talk for the week.

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2026 02 05: Blog/Life Focus
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 05: Blog/Life Focus

Yesterday, my mother-in-law asked me if the studio has had many bookings lately. Much like the nonstop madness of US and world events, which blurs reality itself, my life has been far too packed with stuff lately. The week-long play I’d hosted in my space, which was directed by Kevin Coval who she also knows, didn’t even come to mind. It both somehow feels like years ago and has already been shoved towards the back of my brain’s usable memory.

This is bad!

I need to slow the fuck down and do some more reflection and documentation (see: promotion) of my own life. When I’m not even remembering the things I’m doing, how can anyone else have a chance of knowing what I’m up to? My challenge is always in figuring out how to best ā€œpromoteā€ myself. It never feels right to me (have you subscribed to my new substack?!). We’ll continue to work on it.

Lastly, I aim to tweak the focus of this here blog a bit moving forward. My aim is to keep the images more timely; so either images made within the last month or so, or images made in the same season from previous years. Also, I’d like to bring more humanity to the images. Too much of what I’m posting is stuff. I like the stuff, but I think it’s hard to get anyone’s attention posting only photos of trash on the lawn and cigarettes on the cement.

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2026 02 04: RIP Marie
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 04: RIP Marie

RIP Marie’s. tbh I forgot about the place. Time passes us all, unfortunately. I was lucky enough to partake in this gem of gems, as we say in these parts, a few times before they poured the last cold one. These days, I drive past the location regularly without giving it a second thought. That will change after this lovely time capsule reminder from our friends Andy and Conan.

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2026 02 03: My B/W Era, an Update
Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2026 02 03: My B/W Era, an Update

The motivating force for making this post was that I’m currently in a bit of a black/white phase, as a contemplated back then (point one). It’s been fun and I like how it’s training me to visualize scenes in a different way than I would normally. Perhaps I’ll make a zine of the work down the road… but really, it has me seeing more potential for more thought-out and focused black/white projects.

Traveling (point two) remains my favorite thing to do when time allows. Having just returned from a job down in Louisville, I was able to put one day into my abstract Illinois Wandering project (point three), which led to a few decent images and even more grand ideas. I haven’t yet been able to figure out how to make this practice make money, though perhaps in time the images that are made from the trips will pay off in various ways. Photography as a job is always an abstract journey! While previously the commercial jobs were paying the bills, lately they have been few and far between (point four). It’s stressful financially but has allowed me to explore my own artistic impulses, which is rewarding in other ways.

While you might think the lack of jobs has allowed me huge amounts of free time, the exact opposite has been true, as I’m forced to fill in the gaps with other money-making endeavors (really, it’s mostly me scrambling to make enough money to cover my studio rent each month, which is a significant use of my time). Pivoting my career towards video (point five) and/or becoming a ā€œCreative Agencyā€ has been a serious consideration, but one that I’ve resisted and made a point to avoid if at all possible.

My longer term outlook on the creative field has me continually looking towards art instead of commerce, which likely goes against most peoples’ logic. I see too many headwinds to continue solely down the path of commercial photography without going crazy in the near future. I’d rather scrape by doing things I much rather enjoy.

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