2024 12 25
Merry Christmas, y’all! Yesterday I mentioned jotting down some thoughts on what I plan to be focusing on going into the new year. We’ve been quite distracted watching holiday movies (Home Alone, The Family Stone, White Christmas), so I’ll get into those individual posts beginning tomorrow. Looking back, 2024 was quite honestly one of my personal favorite years, despite some big challenges, but I’m also very much looking forward to 2025. I’m also quite proud I’ve manager to get through an entire year of daily posts. It’s been something I’d wanted to do for like a decade and finally made it happen.
Topics we’ll explore in the next string of days include:
The Illinois Project aka Ill Wandering
Documentary Project
Photobook Store
Commercial Food & Beverage Photography
Portrait Studio
Opening a Bar
Street Photography
This Here Blog
The Studio As An Event Space
It’s like the nine days of Christmas, or something! Anyway… back to the holiday cheer. See you soon.
-Clayton
Is it Santa or just an icy rock pummeling through space? Benton Harbor, Michigan. October, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Merry Christmas, y’all! Yesterday I mentioned jotting down some thoughts on what I plan to be focusing on going into the new year. We’ve been quite distracted watching holiday movies (Home Alone, The Family Stone, White Christmas), so I’ll get into those individual posts beginning tomorrow. Looking back, 2024 was quite honestly one of my personal favorite years, despite some big challenges, but I’m also very much looking forward to 2025. I’m also quite proud I’ve managed to get through an entire year of daily posts. It’s been something I’d wanted to do for like a decade and finally made it happen.
It was around this time last year that the idea hit me to start this here blog, so it seemed only fitting I would dedicate some time towards pondering what projects next year might bring.
Topics we’ll explore in the next string of days include:
The Studio As An Event Space
It’s like the nine days of Christmas, or something! Anyway… back to the holiday cheer. See you soon.
-Clayton
2024 12 16
Banks, like churches, used to be built grand to inspire confidence and awe. These days, only publicly-funded sports stadiums are constructed in this manner. As a result, there are many beautiful old banks scattered around the country in towns that have dried up and evaporated around them. I’ve had a long-running vision of converting these old banks into boutique hotels, catering to our new leisure-based economy instead of the population growth and commerce that spurred their initial creation.
Of course, this idea sounds cool in theory, while in practice would likely be unsustainably expensive and challenging. Hard, but not impossible. If you know someone with a bunch of money they are looking to spend on something fun and interesting, send them my way and we’ll talk. I’ve got expensive ideas.
-Clayton
Grand old bank. Holland, Michigan. October, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Banks, like churches, used to be built grand to inspire confidence and awe. These days, only publicly-funded sports stadiums are constructed in this manner. As a result, there are many beautiful old banks scattered around the country in towns that have dried up and evaporated around them. I’ve had a long-running vision of converting these old banks into boutique hotels, catering to our new leisure-based economy instead of the population growth and commerce that spurred their initial creation.
Of course, this idea sounds cool in theory, while in practice would likely be unsustainably expensive and challenging. Hard, but not impossible. If you know someone with a bunch of money they are looking to spend on something fun and interesting, send them my way and we’ll talk. I’ve got expensive ideas, and perhaps a way to make this vision a reality, however, not the time or capital to do so.
-Clayton