2024 11 11

To be great it takes years of consistent dedication. Cubs pitcher Shota Imanaga photographed during a portrait shoot for Chicago Magazine at Wrigley Field. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s been a minute since I’ve done a proper Life Update and this week will be no different, however, the topic loosely applies. I’m in the early phase of a Pivot to Video, largely spurred by a collapse in demand for commercial photography, but also aided by a lifelong love of video and filmmaking (it’s complicated why I’m not already more focused on it). In this phase, I’m spending a lot of time watching youtube videos. I swear, it’s productive… at least to an extent. Film school is what I keep calling it. Realistically, there’s just a lot of new shit that I need to get up to speed on. Of course, I’m well aware that the only way to be successful at this new venture is not by watching videos but by doing it. Every damn day.

Most, if not all, of the credit to my success in commercial photography can be summed up by putting in the work. Spending the time. Consistent focus and dedication.

In my recent film schooling sessions, I came across a channel by DP Luc Forsyth because he did some camera tests I was curious about. Digging deeper into his channel, I watched this video linked below, which so brilliantly summed up these ideas on success within the industry, ideas I already fully agree with and believe in, but ideas I found interesting specifically because he put them in terms of growing his youtube channel as a working DP. This idea of starting a channel is one I’ve been dwelling on for years now, without taking the leap, mostly because I fully understand the challenges involved. It’s frustrating when I post some photos on Threads and they get zero likes. It’s frustrating when I post a blog to give away a print and get zero engagement. It’s likely far more frustrating to spend hours or your life painstakingly crafting and posting videos for them to go completely ignored by the eight or so billion people living in this world.

Luc summed up his growth projections so well and accurately:

1 year of weekly posting = 1,000 subscribers
2 years of weekly posting = 10,000 subscribers
3 years of weekly posting = 100,000 subscribers

This chart is the sole reason I don’t yet have a youtube channel. I know in my bones it’s accurate, if not optimistic, and the sheer amount of time, energy, effort and focus required to put towards making a new video each and every week, without fail, is daunting. The idea that committing to this for a full year, after which you may get you a thousand subs is almost comical. But that’s not the reason to do it. It’s for year three. Year ten. Year twenty.

I’m already in my forties so the feeling that it’s now or never, the feeling that I’m running short on time is very real and the biggest thing holding me back from going all-in on video. I still love still photography as well and not yet fully convinced I can’t make it work for another twenty years. Anyway, these are the things I am spending a lot of time thinking about lately.

-Clayton

2024 09 30

Shōta Imanaga photographed for the cover of Chicago Magazine. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Finally made it to a Cubs game this year. The last game of the season. During a lull (0-0 game into the 10th) I saw Shota Imanaga, their star pitcher from Japan, hanging out in the dugout and made a run for it, dodging the ever-present ushers.

I got down real close and shouted his name and his interpreter’s name, hoping they’d turn around and recognize me from our cover shoot a few months back. I wanted to ask if he liked the image!

They did not recognize me. Turns out I’m still just an obnoxious fan who the Wrigley ushers do not like.

See you next season.

-Clayton

2024 08 23

Chef Christian Hunter of Atelier. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I woke up early yesterday morning for an exhausting day of photography. My 5:30am call-time to location an hour away without traffic meant a 3:30am wake up and only a few hours of non-consecutive sleep. This sort of approach works once in a while but is impossible to sustain. I woke up this morning (luckily today is an off day which I will use to catch up on everything before leaving town tomorrow morning for another gig out east) and my phone showed me some interesting thoughts from Haruki Murakami on writing:

I get up early and focus solely on writing for five to six hours every single day. Thinking that hard and long about things, your brain gets overheated (with my scalp literally getting hot at times), so after that I need to give my head a rest. That's why I spend my afternoons napping, enjoying music, reading innocuous books. That kind of life, though, gets you out of shape physically, so every day I spend about an hour outdoors exercising. That sets me up for the next day's work. Day after day, without exception, I repeat this cycle.

Murakami is clearly dedicated to his craft and committed enough to stick to such a rigid routine. Comparing this to myself, I do agree that a large part of why I’ve been relatively successful as a photographer is because I’ve allocated a huge amount of my time to the craft. Day after day, year after year, relentless taking, making, editing, and looking at photos. I am not as focused as Murakami, though, and have an endless succession of new hobbies and side projects to distract me. These things likely also keep me sane and able to continue making photography my main career, but I do also wonder if they restrict me from getting to an ultimately higher place within the filed. While it’s nice to make a living from the craft, my real end goal is to achieve something more, and previously I was not on any sort of path to do this. I’m not sure I am now either but am, at least, considering this.

He went on:

I'm a very patient type of person, I think, when it comes to that kind of process. Still, at times I do get fed up with it and hate it. But as I work away, persevering day after day—like a bricklayer carefully laying one brick on top of another—I reach a certain point where I get the definite feeling that when all is said and done, a writer is exactly what I am. And I accept that feeling as something good, something to be celebrated. The slogan of AA (Alcoholics Anonymous) in the US is "One day at a time," and that's exactly what this is like. Maintaining a set rhythm, steadily hauling in one day after the other and sending them on their way. Silently continue to do this and at a certain point something happens inside you. But it takes time to reach this point.

One day at a time, Clayton. One day at a time. I am a photographer. Who also wants to be a writer, and a bar owner, and a director, and a venue manager, and a youtuber, and a podcaster, and a blogger, and a journalist, and a musician, and an arborist. I am a photographer. One day at a time.

-Clayton

2024 08 03

Image made for Chicago Magazine at the best new restaurant: Warlord. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

As a longtime obsessive news reader, I’ve been hard on myself for shifting increasingly more towards youtube in recent years. A big part of why I started this blog was because I was concerned about the amount of time I was spending consuming youtube vs. creating art of my own. That said, I’m still wildly pro youtube and am amazed by the amount of top notch, well-written, interesting, and informative content (not to mention entertaining) which is available on the website. As with anything in life, balance is crucial and avoiding rabbit holes or becoming radicalized is always to be monitored.

The recent Trump assassination attempt has been on my mind a lot and continues to be wildly confusing and concerning, not because I think I know what really happened or how it happened, but simply because it happened at all, regardless the cause. The video linked below by RealLifeLore does a really nice job of summarizing the long list of assassination attempts against sitting presidents and people in important positions. Many of the events mentioned I had completely forgotten about or didn’t even know happened! When they are all recapped in quick succession, it makes the history sound so much more insane.

I enjoy considering historic events and why they happen while endlessly ruminating on it inside the ole brain of mine, even if I’m not “getting to the bottom of things”. Did you know a former mayor of Chicago Anton Cermak was assassinated while sitting next to then president-elect of the United States Franklin D. Roosevelt? Had that single bullet struck its likely-intended target, the world would be a far different place today, and poor Anton would’ve been able to return home to the greatest city in the world. What a world.

-Clayton

2024 06 02

Chef Matteo Lo Bianco of Maman Zari. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Hello. I made this image while on assignment for a Chicago Magazine Best New Restaurants feature. They didn’t end up running any of the images I made at this restaurant, which is always a bit of a bummer, but I was quite happy with a few of them, esp the candid kitchen shots like this one. It wasn’t quite what the magazine wanted and I really only spent the time doing it while we waited for the dining room to fill up some more.

I need to get back out here and try their food. The bites the owner forced me to try were very delicious!

-Clayton

2024 05 22

Chicago Tribune printing press technician works in the now-defunct Chicago plant. April, 2016. © Clayton Hauck

I don’t want this space to turn into a place where I’m regularly pulling from the archives, however, when I heard on NPR this morning that today marks the first ever day in which the Chicago Tribune was not printed in the city of Chicago (the plant was sold to make way for a casino…maybe!), it reminded me of a Chicago Magazine assignment from nearly a decade ago now (yikes) in which I got an amazing behind-the-scenes tour of the printing press facilities.

It’s forever my favorite thing about being a photographer: the peek into a world I’d otherwise never get to experience, even if only for an hour. You could feel the years of history coating the surfaces in this place; ink and gunk collecting over decades. You could also sense the end of an era; empty spaces once full of people and materials now a victim of dwindling news print capacity. Soon the wrecking ball will come and a bland mid-tear casino will rise in its place. Maybe.

-Clayton

2024 04 22

A plate of fancy food photographed for Chicago Magazine at Atelier, Chicago. February, 2024.

Today I will wrap principal photography (haha) on a new cookbook due out later this year. The whole process was a big learning experience which maybe I’ll get into more detail about down the road. Despite the challenges, it kind of lit a fire under my butt to make more work that will be printed in book form; be it a cookbook, photobook, zine, whatever.

Time to buy myself a printer and print more of my photos. It’s been something I’ve severely neglected through the course of my career in photography.

-Clayton

2024 04 09

Chef Christian Hunter of Atelier photographed for Chicago Magazine (and used as the cover image!). Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

After roughly twenty years in the business, it’s rare I get to photograph a magazine cover (partly because magazines don’t really exist anymore) so it was an honor when my semi-regular client Chicago allowed me to do a cover shoot. My photography style tends to be a bit more gritty, dark, and authentic (agency buzz word alert!…are you listening, SEO?), which doesn’t always fit well in the glossy world of heavily-retouched magazine rack images. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.

This image was made as part of a Best New Restaurants feature, which was a blast to be a part of and resulted in some great images.

While I’m still sort of feeling out what this particular website even is, I’m shying away from making it another commercial photography portfolio, so even sharing editorial images like this one doesn’t feel completely right. But we’ll see!

On the topic of myself, one other idea I had was to do a series on Instagram reels going into a bit more detail on how I made specific images. Tips, tricks, and observations. That sort of thing. Is this something people want or am I merely stroking my ego and hunting for social engagement? I don’t know! Sorting out how to exist within the current digital media landscape is endlessly confusing and largely frustrating. I guess at the end of the day you should just do things that feel right to you and not like a blatant grab for internet fame.

What do you think? Is anyone reading this? Blogging is the future so surely there will soon be tens of dozens of people interested in leaving their opinions in the comment section below.

-Clayton

2024 03 26

Chefs at Maman Zari prepare dishes for diners. Photo made as part of a Best New Restaurants spread for Chicago Magazine. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

One of my favorite podcasts is Joiners, in part because they chat with local Chicago hospitality personalities (many of which I personally know), but also because they do a great job of covering a diverse lineup of people from all different perspectives of the industry. Recently, this episode linked below stood out to me in large part due to the portion of the conversation where they discuss finances, insurance, taxes, government bureaucracy, and all these things most of us creative types cringe about but are also forced to deal with. Owner Jason Vincent of some favorite Chicago spots went deep into his frustrations revolving around operating at a higher price point in order to help cover expenses such as employee health insurance.

After listening, the following morning a newsletter by Allison Schrager hit my inbox which touched on the same themes and helped me connect the dots a bit more:

When we look at estimates of food prices moderating it does not tell us the whole story because eating out has become important to many people’s quality of life. In the last century, many once luxuries became common. Dining out used to only be a special occasion thing that now many households of all income levels do regularly. And that made lots of people happy. So did other services that became common in the last twenty years—like ride shares and fast-free delivery of everything (and seamless returns).

A tight labor market and rising minimum wages mean many services we’ve taken for granted are now a struggle, and that will mean people feel poorer because the things they enjoy cost much more.

Inflation is something we’re all sensitive to and is perhaps most easily noticed when dining out. Customers getting shitty about restaurants raising prices to pay for things like health insurance is understandable in part because, yes, some owners are doing it in bad faith, and because higher prices means less eating out so people are sensitive to it generally, but for the owners like Jason who are trying to do the right thing and create a working environment that is fair for his staff, it’s easy to see how this whole situation might be incredibly demoralizing for many restaurant operators. In out new fully globalized world, diners and consumers have been conditioned to seek out the lowest prices, regardless of how they get low, often without considering the tradeoff they are making in pursuit of that cheap mega meal. Rents are up, food prices are up, labor costs are up, (my hospitality photography prices are up), so it’s only logical that prices will need to increase significantly to cover all these new costs.

I have no grand takeaway from all this, but a better understanding of an industry I partially rely on to make a living. The food scene has exploded in recent years with new bars and restaurants opening seemingly every week. So many people now rely on restaurant work to make a living as these jobs are no longer fringe positions, rather a significant portion of the modern workforce with wages often reflecting a previous era. It will be interesting to see if this huge growth in a relatively-new industry can be maintained now that pricing realities are catching up to it or if people will go back to making more of their meals at home to help offset rising prices that don’t seem capable of going back down.

-Clayton

2024 03 16

Bladesmith Sam Goldborch in his studio in Skokie, Illinois. September, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Late last year, I covered this assignment for Chicago Magazine where I spent three days with knife maker Sam Goldbroch in his studio outside of Chicago while he made a custom chef’s knife from scratch. It was a cool experience and I was really happy with the images I came away with, however, it left me thinking the still photos were a bit less effective than perhaps a well-made video would be in showing viewers the entire process from start to finish, having just experienced it myself in person.

Flash forward to now, after the Chicago piece ran, seeing an email from my uncle with a link to a really well done video featuring Anthony Bourdain in his visit to another bladesmith, Bob Kramer. That video can be viewed below and is worth a watch while also serving a sad reminder of how much I miss Anthony Bourdain.

-Clayton

➡️ Click here to see the Chicago Magazine piece
➡️ Click here to see more of my photos from the shoot