2024 11 29
This year has been an eventful one for me in so many ways. One event I was proud of was the photo show and discussion I hosted at my space with photographer Nathan Pearce and photographer/photobook publisher Clint Woodside of Deadbeat Club. Iām aiming to do more events and shows of this nature, but running an event space mostly by myself, on top of all my other jobs and the āday jobā of the space, makes ambitious regular programing not quite possible. This is further complicated by the building Iām in being in a bit of a defining phase. Is it an arts building or is it a professionalās office building? Time will tell and money talks.
Much like the building, I myself am in a transitional phase, and Iām not quite sure which direction I will be heading in a few years. I write about it quite a lot on this here blog, but my core business of commercial photography is quite turbulent lately and the longer-term outlook is hazy. There are so many challenges facing photographers like myself, and I think weāre all sort of wondering what we should be focusing on.
Just now, I hung sixteen prints in the lobby of my building, the Kimball Arts Center. Learning to print, learning to frame, learning to hang. These are all skills Iāve neglected as a photographer and I feel like this, in addition to a bunch of other stuff Iām spending time on lately, is myself revisiting fundamentals that I largely skipped in my younger years. Itās really the little wins that keep me going, as hard as it has been. While being enthusiastic and excited about printing your work is nice, making it sustainable financially is a completely different scenario. I was joking with a fellow photographer/director, who is also going through a slow patch, that booking commercial projects is far easier than selling fine art photo prints. Itās hard to even give these things away! I get it, though. This is not a get rich quick scheme. Itās hardly even a business endeavor. Itās fundamentals. Hard hat, lunch pail. Put in the reps. Put in the work. It leads somewhere. Where, exactly, Iām not sure, but Iām doing my best to make sure Iām enjoying the path and learning while I go.
-Clayton
Hanging a photo show with Nathan Pearce at my See You Soon studio. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This year has been an eventful one for me in so many ways. One event I was proud of was the photo show and discussion I hosted at my space with photographer Nathan Pearce and photographer/photobook publisher Clint Woodside of Deadbeat Club. Iām aiming to do more events and shows of this nature, but running an event space mostly by myself, on top of all my other jobs and the āday jobā of the space, makes ambitious regular programing not quite possible. This is further complicated by the building Iām in being in a bit of a defining phase. Is it an arts building or is it a professionalās office building? Time will tell and money talks.
Much like the building, I myself am in a transitional phase, and Iām not quite sure which direction I will be heading in a few years. I write about it quite a lot on this here blog, but my core business of commercial photography is quite turbulent lately and the longer-term outlook is hazy. There are so many challenges facing photographers like myself, and I think weāre all sort of wondering what we should be focusing on.
Just now, I hung sixteen prints in the lobby of my building, the Kimball Arts Center, as a homeless man dozed off on the coffee shop bench. Learning to print, learning to frame, learning to hang. These are all skills Iāve neglected as a photographer and I feel like this, in addition to a bunch of other stuff Iām spending time on lately, is myself revisiting fundamentals that I largely skipped in my younger years. Itās really the little wins that keep me going, as hard as it has been. While being enthusiastic and excited about printing your work is nice, making it sustainable financially is a completely different scenario. I was joking with a fellow photographer/director, who is also going through a slow patch, that booking commercial projects is far easier than selling fine art photo prints.
Itās hard to even give these things away!
I get it, though. This is not a get rich quick scheme. Itās hardly even a business endeavor. Itās fundamentals. Hard hat, lunch pail. Put in the reps. Put in the work. It leads somewhere. Where, exactly, Iām not sure, but Iām doing my best to make sure Iām enjoying the path and learning while I go, while doing my best at not also becoming a homeless person myself.
-Clayton
2024 10 26
This weekend, at my studio we:
Hosted a Creative Mornings event with 80 people in attendance
Hosted a honky tonk show for The Bobcat Boys with fifty or so people in attendance
Hosted a party for Show & Tell Me More, an early childhood development online course which films in our space.
Hosted a party for our neighbors to celebrate their childās one-year birthday
I am tired. Good thing itās almost Monday and Iām definitely not posting this a day late after just having watched the Bears lose an otherwise great game (second half, at least) on a bonehead hail mary defense. Having so much programming at the studio is fun but itās very much a full-time job.
-Clayton
Behind the camera during a portrait session at my See You Soon studio. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This weekend, at my studio we:
Hosted a Creative Mornings event with 80 people in attendance
Hosted a honky tonk show for The Bobcat Boys with fifty or so people in attendance
Hosted a party for Show & Tell Me More, an early childhood development online course which films in our space
Hosted a party for our neighbors to celebrate their childās one-year birthday
I am tired. Good thing itās almost Monday and Iām definitely not posting this a day late after just having watched the Bears lose an otherwise great game (second half, at least) on a bonehead hail mary defense. Having so much programming at the studio is fun but itās very much a full-time job.
-Clayton
2024 10 19
While out on a short getaway this week, I came to a realization that in the near future, everyone will be have a bed & breakfast. Itās really the perfect job for participants in todayās manic economy. You have not one measly job but quite literally all of the jobs, while being fully responsible for participating them twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year (you get one day off every four years on February 29th).
I joke, but the joke it deeply rooted in my own reality. Photographers first and foremost need to be skilled not in the act of making nice images but in sales and marketing (along with finance, studio managing, tax accounting, law, etc). They donāt teach you this in art school, of course. The fun stuff (making photos) is a shockingly small portion of the time you spend being a photographer. If you are good enough at sales, you can get enough paid jobs to save up enough money, buy a dilapidated building in a small but charming midwest town, and then live the good life as full-time inn operator.
-Clayton
Photographers wear many hats. See You Soon. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
While out on a short getaway this week, I came to a realization that in the near future, everyone will be have a bed & breakfast. Itās really the perfect job for participants in todayās manic economy. You have not one measly job but quite literally all of the jobs, while being fully responsible for participating in them twenty-four hours a day, three-hundred and sixty-five days a year (you get one day off every four years on February 29th).
I joke, but the joke is deeply rooted in my own reality. Photographers first and foremost need to be skilled not in the act of making nice images but in sales and marketing (along with client relations, finance, studio managing, tax accounting, law, etc). They donāt teach you this in art school, of course. The fun stuff (making photos) is a shockingly small portion of the time you spend being a photographer. If you are good enough at sales, you can get enough paid jobs to save up enough money, buy a dilapidated building in a small but charming midwest town, and then live the good life as full-time inn operator.
-Clayton
2024 05 04
This blog post is being written from my studio office, which is inside the Kimball Arts Center. Before I signed the lease on this space, I spent a few years searching, scheming, and dreaming about buying a building which Iād then convert into my own space. This building, pictured here for sale off Elston Avenue, is kind of exactly what I was looking for. The problem was, anything I could find that fit what I needed was either a) well over a million dollars and out of my budget or b) so far away from anywhere I wanted to be that it didnāt make sense.
One building popped up and looked promising, however, I knew it would need some work (as they all do) so hired a brick guy to come out and look at the space with me. Upon arrival, he told me heād crossed the street to avoid walking next to said building because the condition was so bad he figured the top my topple over at any moment. I got the point and didnāt make an offer on the $400,000 property, which seemed like a great deal at the time.
Before we got to this point, Iād gone to scout out the building and the surrounding area myself. While wandering the nearby alley, a man yelled to get my attention from a dark rear vestibule. Clearly a man down on his luck, sleeping on the floor with a wheel chair next to him, my suspicions were high but I nonetheless approached him cautiously. He asked me to help him get up into his chair. This is when I noticed he didnāt have any legs and the only way he was going to get back into his chair was with the help of someone passing by, such as myself in this moment.
What do you do at this point? Your only choices are to make some jumbled excuse and leave the man helpless on the ground or do your best to get him back up into his chair, so that is what I did. Thatās the story of how I held a homeless man in my arms while trying to scout some cheap real estate to fulfill my professional photography career dreams.
Fellow photographer Noah Kalina recently joked on social media that the only ways to get rich in photography these days are to either win a copyright infringement lawsuit or buy real estate in Soho in the 1980ās. So funny, sad, and true.
That building is still standing, however, the ornate stone crown atop the structure, which my inspector was worried would collapse, was nowhere to be seen the last time I drove past. Be careful where youāre walking.
-Clayton
A man walks down Elston Avenue. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
This blog post is being written from my studio office, which is inside the Kimball Arts Center. Before I signed the lease on this space, I spent a few years searching, scheming, and dreaming about buying a building which Iād then convert into my own space. This building, pictured here for sale off Elston Avenue, is kind of exactly what I was looking for. The problem was, anything I could find that fit what I needed was either a) well over a million dollars and out of my budget or b) so far away from anywhere I wanted to be that it didnāt make sense.
One building popped up and looked promising, however, I knew it would need some work (as they all do) so hired a brick guy to come out and look at the space with me. Upon arrival, he told me heād crossed the street to avoid walking next to said building because the condition was so bad he figured the top might topple over at any moment. I got the point and didnāt make an offer on the $400,000 property, which seemed like a great deal at the time.
Before we got to this point, Iād gone to scout out the building and the surrounding area myself. While wandering the nearby alley, a man yelled to get my attention from a dark rear vestibule. Clearly a man down on his luck, sleeping on the floor with a wheel chair next to him, my suspicions were high but I nonetheless approached him cautiously. He asked me to help him get up into his chair. This is when I noticed he didnāt have any legs and the only way he was going to get back into his chair was with the help of someone passing by, such as myself in this moment.
What do you do at this point? Your only choices are to make some jumbled excuse and leave the man helpless on the ground or do your best to get him back up into his chair, so that is what I did. Thatās the story of how I held a homeless man in my arms while trying to scout some cheap real estate to fulfill my professional photography career dreams.
Fellow photographer Noah Kalina recently joked on social media that the only ways to get rich in photography these days are to either win a copyright infringement lawsuit or buy real estate in SoHo in the 1980ās. So funny, sad, and true.
That building is still standing, however, the ornate stone crown atop the structure, which my inspector was worried would collapse, was nowhere to be seen the last time I drove past. Be careful where youāre walking.
-Clayton