2024 07 30
A dish at the venerable Longman & Eagle. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Photographing food changed my life.
Saying yes to something I wasn’t comfortable with changed my life.
Long story short(ish): In my early years as a freelance photographer, I spent my time documenting Chicago’s nightlife and music scenes. I’d go out many nights a week and post all my images on my blog, everyoneisfamous.com, which gained a nice local following (shoutout Mark Hunter, who I stole this idea from!). One day, one of the owners of a popular music venue which I’d often photograph reached out to ask me to take photos of a new restaurant he was opening. That restaurant was named Longman & Eagle and went on to become a food phenomenon in Chicago and beyond. They won Michelin awards (despite being a “dark tavern”), were visited by Anthony Bourdain, and featured in seemingly every magazine and food website in the country. Fortunately for me, those first big pushes of press and publicity were saturated in my images with my byline attached to them (usually). This, in turn, led to further opportunities from people wanting a piece of the hot action. But I almost didn’t even do that first job out of concern I wasn’t capable of making good food photos!
I was largely oblivious with all this at the time and did nothing to better capitalize on it; I just went about my business and made photos of whatever I thought was fun or interesting. Perhaps this was part of what the Longman guys liked about me, because one day, I got another email which changed my life. One of the partners (shoutout Cody Hudson!) had put my name into the mix when asked by an ad agency art buyer based in Boston (shoutout Carolyn Dowd!) who was organizing a massive project all across the country for Bank of America. I had zero experience in commercial photography, however against all odds, landed a multi-day project capturing local businesses in Chicago, Detroit, Houston and elsewhere for the giant bank, which paid me a day rate I previously didn’t even know was possible through photography. This job eventually led me to consider the thought that I could make photography a legitimate career; That I could one day own a home. This job eventually led me to land a partnership with an agent who I am still close with today (shoutout Erica Chadwick!). Me saying yes to getting out of my comfort zone and photographing some food is a simple little moment which has been such an amazing catalyst for my photography career and life.
I remember the feeling I had when he called. I’m pretty sure I even told him no, I wouldn’t do it. It wasn’t my thing. Fortunately he pushed me into it and here we are today, still remembering it’s often a good idea to get out of your comfort zone and try something new, because you never know where it will take you.
-Clayton
