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 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

2024 06 06

Regular collaborators Txa Txa Club (Liz and Daniel) in their home workspace. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

One of these days, I’ll tell you the story about how I photographed an entire cookbook and didn’t even get the cover image. I bring this up only because I wanted to post this image, which was made on that shoot. Still, I’m glad I took the assignment because it sort of shifted my perspective a bit for the better and made me want to further engage with the world of photography and cookbooks. If any of you famous chefs out there reading this are looking for a motivated photographer, hit a guy up (me)!

Last week I stopped by Huge Galdones’ studio as he was photographing a new book for chef Joe Sasto. His space is great! In our brief conversation we had as they were broke for lunch, my perspective on things was again shifted as I realized I need to up my game and become more of a legit food shooter. Compared to their setup, my cookbook shoot was a rinky-dink DIY operation with a budget to match! At least we had a cat assisting us, which made post production even more enjoyable (cat hair and food = bad combination — again, hire me for all your cookbook photography needs!)

-Clayton

2024 05 23

Chicken post photo shoot at Lardon. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I’m a bit of a loner by nature; but you can’t do everything alone. Even the Unibomber had the help of the uniformed United States Postal Service on his side. You wanna get married, start a business, have a party, do a thing, make love, dance… you need other people.

This was my profound takeaway yesterday after spending seven hours of my day in various meetings. This is my takeaway after watching Succession (yes, a fictional television show but largely based on the real world) in which the characters with influence don’t seem to actually do anything beyond looking presentable and talking to other influential people.

You better start having the right fucking meetings. Alright, alright, alright.

-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 12

Warlord, one of Chicago’s best new restaurants, just featured in the New Yahk Times. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Look, I don’t have time to write a banger post each and every day like yesterday’s was so some days I’m just going to post some self-promotional bullshit, like today!

My email box alerted me to a new New York Times feature covering “Chicago’s 25 Best Restaurants” using my photo in the emailer with my name in the byline. I mean, c’mon, it’s exciting!

This was my first visit to said restaurant and I snapped a few images on my trusty Ricoh, this one included. I’m a reluctant social media user, however, have been trying to be better about tagging people on IG lately. I tagged Warlord in this shot and they hit me back, asking me to email them so they could show their mom. Cute! Fast forward to Chicago hitting me up to do some photos and having the existing communication really helped along the process and led to some amazing images for a different Best New Restaurants feature. Then, this NYT feature happened. Next, surely Joe B(iden) will call asking if I can get him in. That’s how this shit works.

Anyway, shoutout to Yoder for lining up at 3pm or whatever to get us in.

Now I’m hungry.

-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 01 14

Restaurant scene at Lardon. December, 2023. Chicago. © Clayton Hauck

Found moments are always my favorite. On my fancy expensive commercial jobs, the trick is often to make the neat & clean setup look organic & found. In this regard: a big part of styling is simply knowing what works and having good taste.

Bonus Tip: The Italiano Sandwich at Lardon. (photos by yours truly)

-Clayton