2024 11 04

Remember that eclipse? Vincennes, Indiana. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It turns out I got a couple decent shots of the eclipse afterall! Yeah, that thing that happened way back in April, which feels like a lifetime ago. I wrote about feeling frustrated after the experience (see: 2024 04 11) in that I hedged and neither fully enjoyed the moment nor committed to making a nice image of it. That said, it was an incredible experience nonetheless and I’m so grateful that we made the effort to be there in person for it.

A nice little bonus was that months later, when I finally got my film developed, there were a few nice exposures on it that I had completely written off as not likely to be worthwhile. This frame above I’m quite sure I made through the highly filtered solar glasses, which helps give it a darker appearance, while the on-camera flash illuminates the tree. It was all happening so fast that instincts took over and most of what I remember is the feeling of frantic and chaotic awe.

Fittingly, my plan today was to post a quote. When researching the below quote (so many famous quotes are inaccurately attributed), I was pleased to learn this was indeed said by Einstein in an interview about his theory of relativity, which was proven correct through measurements taken during a total solar eclipse.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”

— Einstein

-Clayton

2024 10 01

Moonlight over the horizon. St Germain, Wisconsin. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Notes From a Podcast (a semi-regular ongoing series??)
PhotoWork with Sasha Wolf episode 82 - Matthew Genitempo

While editing an endless pool of images, I often listen to Sasha’s great podcast full of interviews with fine art photographers (is there a better label than fine art photographer? photographer, I guess?). I feel the need to specify: not commercial photography, which is what I’m personally more familiar with. This was a standout episode and very much worth a listen, however the following things stood out prominently.

One: Matthew said he gives himself a geographical boundary and then goes out to make work and see what comes back; see what the pictures are telling him, instead of going out and trying to illustrate a picture he has in his head. His recent book project (Dogbreath) was made in Tucson, Arizona because he was drawn to the distinct sunlight quality and unique urban setting (you see things that are new to you and it sparks your imagination). He visited a school and found the local photo students were not as excited about their own familiar city as he was. Each morning, he’d begin his day with a jog and use it to scout the territory and even meet people that became subjects in the book.

I love all of this and strongly agree with the sentiments. My own personal project began this year with “Illinois outside of Cook County” as my boundaries. Quickly, I’ve learned these boundaries are likely too large, however, I’ve also been listening to what the images are telling me, and themes and ideas are slowly emerging and my approach is adapting. Hopefully next year I will have more time to dedicate to this project, but I loved hearing and learning from Matthew’s experiences in his existing book projects.

Two: Sasha made an amazing baseball player slump analogy. When a player isn’t performing, usually either their mechanics are off or they are pressing. They are trying to hard and overthinking it, instead of going on instinct. An artist works best under the same circumstances. Let the ball come to you and make contact. Don’t force it.

This analogy is amazing and I strongly agree with it. The other day, I was discussing my approach with a friend and explaining to him how, on my smaller shoots, I operate mostly on feel, while doing everything myself. Lights go up, find an angle, find a power setting to match some settings on the camera, ambient lights are considered, emotions of the subject are considered, etc, etc, all mostly on auto-pilot. Comparing this to approach to my commercial jobs, where the final direction and style are usually pre-determined and there is a crew constantly awaiting your direction isn’t always an easy task for me, because my intuition is to feel it out first, then act.

Three: There’s a quote from Judith Joy Ross that Matthew loves and thinks of as one of the formative ways he looks at photography and helped open him up: “I have a large beautiful wooden camera. I’m a quick talker and I can convince people in a few seconds because I’m sincerely interested in them, but I am more interested in capturing what I see in them. It’s not that I want to be their friend, it’s that I see their life and it’s amazing and I want to put it in an image. It’s a short but deep connection. Then I go back to being alone, but have one more lighting bug in a bottle. One more piece of evidence as to who we are.

This is beautiful and I aim to internalize this sentiment and allow it to help me in my process. Often, my instinct is to make photographs of people without them being aware of it. This is an approach which is increasingly frowned upon by a society sensitive to a constant and over-bearing surveillance. I love the idea of first better connecting with my subjects and then lowering the barriers to allow them to be themselves. This is my approach on every commercial project I undertake and there’s no reason I can’t also bring it into my personal work. Even if it takes more effort and won’t always work, I think it’s worth the effort.

Two final details that I jotted down and enjoyed:

Robert Adams talks about “the gift picture” … one image that sort of ties a project together and you can work off of.

Sasha: “There’s drudgery in every dream job” … on packing books into boxes all, day, long. Or, in my case, committing to write daily about it all.

-Clayton

EPISODE LINKS:

podcast link: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3jMjkuu3kPl0N8GxX3tEZZ

photographer’s website: https://www.matthewgenitempo.com/dogbreath-1

to read: Core Curriculum https://books.apple.com/us/book/core-curriculum/id949942181

2024 09 28

Bare trees (and the moon). Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s just bare trees (and the moon), I know, but I really like this image. It’s been sitting in the folder, waiting to get picked, and today is the day. It looks best when not massively compressed for the web, of course, but here we are on the world wide web. Speaking of the web, while editing images today, The Almighty Algorithm served me yet another documentary on Chicago house music which I digested and enjoyed in similar fashion to this post from 2024 07 21.

I was never a big house head and don’t know the history as well as I should, having lived in Chicago my entire life, but I enjoy electronic music (esp classic disco), and also love history, so it’s fascinating to watch these videos on youtube which clearly have a ton of time and energy put into them with little to no fanfare. That’s sort of the thing with house music. That’s sort of the thing with Chicago. We’re out here putting in the time and effort and making things for the love of the game, and all too often are rewarded with the gift of not being discovered and not being turned into a product, remaining human (downside: not getting the cash). There’s a reason many leave Chicago in search of fame and fortune (and trying to get to the moon). And there’s a reason some of us stay here and pursue their art via blogs like this here blog.

Yes, dad, I’ll get back to photographing people again soon.

Check out the video if you have a chance. Back to work, I go. Always be grinding, if you love the grind.

-Clayton

2024 07 06

Moon through trees. Wilmette, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Being about halfway through a year of daily blogging, I’m finding myself wondering the benefits of doing this. While I’m not considering stopping, I am wondering if the strict requirement of posting each day is helpful or if it’s more likely causing me unnecessary stress and leading to boring posts nobody cares to look at, thus bringing down the overall quality of the entire project.

Yeah, I’m an over-thinker.

The image I’m sharing today is a nice callback to the first post (2024 01 01). It was taken in nearly the same location at nearly the same (seasonally-relative) time of day, with only the trees providing a variation with their leaves.

My sister is in town staying with us and she’s always doing something fun and creative (which I often end up copying). This time, it’s The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. One process the book teaches is doing your “daily pages”, which is basically writing three pages in a notebook first thing in the morning. It doesn’t have to be pretty — just get it on the page! Brain drain style. I love the concept behind this process. It also had me wondering how much of this here blog is actually my organic version of morning pages; my version of therapy.

-Clayton

2024 05 20

The moon above my backyard bald cypress tree. Chicago, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

My bald cypress tree… Can a tree really belong to someone? I think not. But I do love and care for this tree as if it was my own child. Watching Baldee grow up has brought joy to my life. I kid (a little) but being a man without a human kid or (currently) dog or cat or hampster to care for, you take the love where you can get it.

Anyway. It’s Life Update Monday!

Life Updates:

• Becoming a “portrait photographer” is way more challenging than I ever would’ve guessed. Convincing people to pay you money for them to come to your studio to stand in front of your camera is no easy task.

• That said, I’m learning and making progress and having some fun with it as well! Ted Talk coming soon…

• …actually, I’ve been kinda wanting to write more honest thoughts about the backside of the photography business. Numbers, paperwork, production, etc. Is this something anyone wants to see? Am I just opening up a can of worms I will regret? Leave a comment!

• Blog comments: nobody leaves them and it’s making me feel like I’m speaking into the void. I understand why nobody blogs anymore and everyone tweets or X’es or whatever-you-call-it-now. Instant gratification is a nasty beast.

• I’m photographing two projects this week that should be both challenging and interesting. One is motion! One is studio cocktails in a style I’ve not previously explored. I’m also exploring different lighting approaches in both (namely, continuous lights vs strobes).

• The studio is a full-time job and something I should also write a bit more about. Lots of lessons learned over the last 2-3 years. The last few months it has been cashflow positive, which is obviously nice but is not always the case (nor was I expecting it to be, however, I was expecting it to be easier in almost every other way than it has been).

• Weather is nice. I’m jinxing it but why haven’t there been mosquitos yet??? Did we bioengineer them away? The last few years in Chicago they’ve been terrible and so far this year I’m not sure I’ve even seen one. I’m sure they are coming, but damn, it’s been real nice.

• Printing! I haven’t had time to get too into it yet, but, damn! The first few prints I’ve made (I’ve only been testing paper samples so far with the same image) have really lit a fire under my ass. I’m optimistic it will unlock a whole new perspective on what photography even is, to me. More on that soon.

-Clayton

2024 03 25

Reflection of sunlight off the moon, through the trees, on a cold winter night in Chicago, Illinois. October, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Until fusion power is figured out and solves all of humanity’s problems, we’re stuck with nuclear fission power plants, which have their own drawbacks (Homer Simpson vibes) despite being far more green and efficient than all other methods of power generation currently known. More importantly, humans hate nuclear energy, so we do all we can to make sure it doesn’t exist anywhere close to where anyone lives. Germany just closed all of their nuclear plants, as did Japan after the Fukushima disaster (understandably… though have recently reopened some). The United States has only opened two new nuclear power plants in the previous three decades, while demand for energy only continues to go up.

Considering all the talk of AI taking over the world, a less-discussed aspect in making our automated futures become a reality is that the amount of energy required to do so is extreme and will require many new sources. Wind and solar help, yes, but are both inconsistent, have relatively lower outputs, and introduce new challenges. Look for nuclear power to suddenly become fashionable again as corporations realize their power needs are about to skyrocket. In order for the New Industrial Revolution to take place, (I’m just guessing here) we’ll probably need to double our energy capacity. Convenient timing considering climate change and the race to pivot to renewable energy.

Unrelatedly, one fun fact about Illinois is that we produce more nuclear energy than any other state. It’s a small fact that helped motivate me to purchase an electric vehicle, as burning coal to power your car isn’t any better than filling up the tank with gasoline.

Anyway, I bring all this up because it came to mind after watching a Noah Kalina video I liked, so as the website rules go, was required to write about here. I had no idea there used to be a nuclear plant on Long Island (home to many rich and powerful people!) and (therefore) it only operated for a few years even after they spent $6 billion to construct it (insanity!).

-Clayton