2024 12 02

Baltimore Photo Space. Photo Books Inside. Baltimore, Maryland. September, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Seems like we’re due for another Life Update Monday around here. It’s been a while. As always, I use this blog primarily as a space for me to think and practice writing. Honestly, after close to a year of doing this every day, I’m happy with the results so far! That said, this year has also been a blur. I’m clearly taking on too much and doing too many different things. While mostly by design, I’m aware it’s not sustainable and plan to scale back on my ambitions next year, while hopefully focusing on less things simultaneously.

Today, I woke up to a social media post that hit me:

Nietzsche describes 3 modern vices:

1. Overwork. To be constantly busy is self-negation. It betrays "a will to forget" oneself.

2. Curiosity. Vague curiosity about everything, without deep obsessions, goes nowhere.

3. Sympathy. Sympathy for all = a refusal to rank good and bad.

I’m definitely guilty of numbers one and two and generally agree with his assessment of their negative aspects. These next two weeks are going to be a whirlwind, as I have a number of studio events going on (including a holiday market I organized happening this Saturday!) and multiple photo shoots (some my own, including a large four-day shoot, along with others where I play the role of studio manager). Picking priorities and ensuring the most important tasks don’t get neglected is critical, but of course, many of the less important details are going to get put off. My printing, side projects, a holiday party, bartending, Illinois Project, reading, photo editing, website updating, blogging, film screenings, portrait sessions, all will have to wait until next year.

Bigger picture, a big takeaway I’ve had from this year’s chaos was that I love running a photo studio space, largely for reasons that don’t even involve photo shoots: hosting and planning events, collaborating with fun and interesting people, community. It’s a ton of work and exhausting, but nevertheless fills me with purpose and inspiration. The big challenge is figuring out how to make an event space sustainable financially.

Ideally, I can continue to focus my time and energy on these things, while also keeping my love for photography in the forefront. I continually look at places like Baltimore Photo Space as inspiration and plan to pursuit some hybrid entity that combines all the things See You Soon already is, while making it more focused on photography as an art form, which I continue to think is wildly underrated.

I realize this is all quite vague, and that’s because it is and will continue to be a work in progress, and there are still lots of questions to be answered. This post, I hope, will serve as a reminder to myself that I can’t neglect focusing inward and giving my own voice a space to talk. Whatever becomes of See You Soon will be best guided by following my own interests and excitement and not by attempting to copy something that exists elsewhere.

-Clayton

2024 11 29

Hanging a photo show with Nathan Pearce at my See You Soon studio. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2024. © 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. I’m 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 “day job” of the space, makes ambitious regular programing not quite possible. This is further complicated by the building I’m in being in a bit of a defining phase. Is it an arts building or is it a professional’s office building? Time will tell and money talks.

Much like the building, I myself am in a transitional phase, and I’m 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 we’re 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 I’ve neglected as a photographer and I feel like this, in addition to a bunch of other stuff I’m spending time on lately, is myself revisiting fundamentals that I largely skipped in my younger years. It’s 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.

It’s hard to even give these things away!

I get it, though. This is not a get rich quick scheme. It’s hardly even a business endeavor. It’s fundamentals. Hard hat, lunch pail. Put in the reps. Put in the work. It leads somewhere. Where, exactly, I’m not sure, but I’m doing my best to make sure I’m enjoying the path and learning while I go, while doing my best at not also becoming a homeless person myself.

-Clayton

2024 10 26

Behind the camera during a portrait session at my See You Soon studio. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © 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 child’s one-year birthday

I am tired. Good thing it’s almost Monday and I’m 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 it’s very much a full-time job.

-Clayton

2024 10 24

Some filming going on at my studio space. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I live at my studio now. I don’t sleep there, but I live there. It’s a nice space and people ask me all the time if I live there. I do, I just happen to leave late at night to go to my second home to sleep before waking up early and returning to the studio. It’s, perhaps, not the most economically-sensible approach to life, but it’s what I do.

See you at 7:30am (soon)!

-Clayton

2024 10 19

Photographers wear many hats. See You Soon. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © 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. It’s really the perfect job for participants in today’s 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 don’t 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 10 02

Portrait of Anne. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Self-promotional Wednesday! Today, through next Wednesday, I am doing my “Keep it 100” portrait setup at my See You Soon studio. If you’re in the Chicagoland area, check it out and come shoot with me! It’s a ton of fun, super affordable, the images are great, and I’m having a hell of a time getting people to come out for it!

Seriously, though, I’m being a bit hard on myself. I’ve already done at least fifty of these sessions if not many more (brain blur) but in my head the deal is so good there should be a line down the block. I’ll get up some more thoughts about all this later this week, I think.

In the meantime, click this link, book a session, and come shoot with me why don’t you?!

-Clayton

2024 08 15

Dinosaurs walk amongst us, on The 606 Trail. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Hello. I’ve been quite busy lately and it’s largely due to my studio and photography projects taking up all of my time. Can’t complain, just a little note to myself to make me feel less bad about neglecting my side projects, like this here blog. Anyway, here’s a dinosaur I spotted recently while working in my studio. Sometimes I don’t even need to leave the room and I can still make beautiful award-winning images (joke).

-Clayton

PS - I’ve got some really fun events coming up at the studio… the place that is taking all of my time from me. Come out and hang, why don’t you?!

2024 08 09

Some of my limited edition prints dubbed “The Camera You Have” photographed in my studio. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Quick update, as I’m late to post today (busy, working, stuff, things) and dangerously close to missing my first day all year!

Potisitve: Ive been learning to print! It’s been fun, and expensive, and time consuming, and easy, and hard, and fun, and I like it. Most of what I’ve printed thus far is personal work which I haven’t shared anywhere yet. I also printed a new commercial photo portfolio, which looked great and ate up a ton of ink ($$). Hopefully it leads to a job or two to help pay for the time and expenses.

Negative: Money. Time. Just another thing to sink my limited time into for zero monetary upside (in reality, just a loss).

Positive: I’m getting excited about photography from a different perspective. I want to make zines and books and prints and do shows and print other people’s work and have fun!

Long story short: as with everything, this new venture is a work-in-progress but one that I’m excited about. This post has been a reminder than I am behind schedule on releasing a new print into my The Camera You Have series. I am to do this next week and I will again give one away here on the ole blog. Stay tuned!

-Clayton

2024 06 22

Dinah, photographed in my “Keep It 100” setup at my See You Soon studio. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Hello loyal daily photo blog readers (mom & dad)! This coming week, and the week thereafter, I will be offering my insanely-priced $100 portrait sessions at the studio. If you’re in need of one-hundred unique new images of yourself, book a session and come shoot with me! It’s a ton of fun and I’ll soon be raising the price because this deal is going to lead me to financial ruin if I keep it up much longer.

Anyway, hope to see you soon!

-Clayton

2024 05 07

Dinah in front of the camera for my Keep it 100 portrait session. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Following my own advice from yesterday’s entry, I checked out another from Paulie B’s amazing Walkie Talkie series, this time featuring another photographer I was not previously familiar with by the name of Sara Messinger. I think the kids are alright! Beyond being introduced to another talented name, I loved the contrasting styles, approaches, and philosophies between Sara and Trevor, who was the previous subject of yesterday’s post. Throughout the entire forty-minute video, I’m not sure Sara made a single image, while Trevor finished like a dozen rolls and got into a few heated moments with strangers-who-became-subjects.

Partly why I loved this video with Sara is because she constantly reminded me of my own partner Allison, whereas I’m probably a bit more like Trevor. We all see the world a bit different and approach photography in our own ways. It’s also rather fascinating to contemplate how street photography has changed since I was their age wandering the streets with a camera. People these days are far more sensitive and aware about what might happen when a stranger makes a photo of them on the street without their consent.

That’s a deeper debate for another day, but let’s leave it there for now. Compete less; put yourself out there more; open yourself up to connect deeply with your subjects, as that’s how the magical moments are made. Thanks for your positive energy, Sara.

-Clayton

2024 03 18

Filmmaker & educator Anu Rana in my See You Soon studio as a subject in my Keep it 100 portrait setup. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s Monday. Back to work…

Here’s a little self promotion. I do a really fun portrait setup in my studio where I offer $100 portrait sessions in which participants get 100 unique photos of themselves. No AI, no fancy Photoshop tricks, just a unique approach to good old fashioned portrait photography.

➡️ You can check out more about the process, or book a session next time I’m offering it, here on the studio page.

-Clayton

2024 03 01

Wow, it’s been a lot of vertical images lately… Txa Txa Supper Club #30 at See You Soon Chicago. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Tyler Perry is a billionaire and massively successful filmmaker. This is why, when he recently announced he’s pausing plans to expand his Atlanta studio because of AI, people listened.

➡️ Tyler Perry Puts $800M Studio Expansion on Hold After Seeing OpenAI’s Sora: “Jobs Are Going to Be Lost”

I saw a wide range of responses to the headline online, from AI bros proclaiming movies will soon be fully automated, to others upset he’s not investing a billion dollars into a film studio as a way to combat the rise of AI. Regardless of what you think about the headline, my guess is that the reality of his decision to halt work after surely spending millions of dollars on the project was made more for exesting economic reasons than because Sora released a few automated videos that look like a high end video game render. These AI videos, released only by the company that is producing the renders (and surely only gives us the best of the best), do look quite remarkable at a glance, on a phone, in low resolution — and yes, it clearly shows where things are heading — but I also don’t think we’re going to fully automate away our arts and entertainment despite it sort of feeling like this is where we are heading.

Currently, the AI stories making the headlines are how good it is at making photos, videos, writing stories, graphic design, etc … all the fun and creative things humans enjoy doing. What’s less exciting to read about is how AI can replace the less glamorous professions such as tax preparation, legal copyrighting, software coding, logistics.

There’s no doubt in my mind that AI is coming for all of us and will massively transform the world in the coming decade (if not this year). Just look at the NVIDIA stock price and you’ll see this is what the stock market believes. I think the AI revolution (a new Industrial Revolution) is already transforming corporate America in less obvious ways: namely employee headcount. Corporations are letting go and/or pausing hiring as they figure out all the ways to best implement AI into their corporate structure while replacing as many humans possible. The economy still feels relatively okay, but a storm is a brewin’. These changes aren’t yet mainstream news stories but I think soon everyone will start to feel the effects of someone they know losing a job because it is, at least attempting to be, outsourced to artificial intelligence.

Scott Galloway put out a nice piece (linked below) equating the corporate use of AI to the human use of diet drugs. We all do it, we just don’t like to talk about it.

➡️ Corporate Ozempic

I just wish I could automate a way to not think about AI so damn much these days.

-Clayton

PS - want to dig into this even further and get even more depressed? This video is worth your time and paints a largely bleak picture about our not-too-distant futures

PPS - My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer!

2024 02 27

Artist and studio neighbor Emmy Star Brown with her dog Ralphie stop by my See You Soon studio for a chat. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2024 © Clayton Hauck

Conversation: 

Woman: There was a possum in my yard today.

Man: You mean an opossum? 

Woman: No, a possum. 

Man: Well, I think the word is actually spelled with an o, therefore for you’d say an opossum. 

Woman: Yeah, well I’m not an fucking idiot. It’s a possum.

2024 01 21

Portrait of a participant at a Beer & Cameras event I hosted at my See You Soon studio. Novermber 12, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

*Warning: Political Content*

While I have no idea how this upcoming political election will play out, other than it being an unbearable experience for most of us, I wanted to air some thoughts on the topic.

Preface: Local politics have vastly more impact to most of us and are surprisingly easy to get involved in and make a difference. Of course, they are also wildly boring and therefor almost universally ignored. On that note, let’s chat about the Big Ticket Item, the president of the United States!

---

One angle that I think gets mostly forgotten or overlooked in US political discourse is: things change. Both the Democratic and Republican parties were vastly different not that long ago as they are made up of varying coalition of groups, interests, rich people, corporations, etc. My skrewball vision over the last few years is that we’d soon see the rise of a third viable party in this country — which would be a progressive/socialist party fueled by the anger of young, disenfranchised, and “left behind” voters — while the traditional conservative strong-government stability-rules types would side with an increasingly-conservative Democratic party (mostly because they still have the old power structures firmly in place) and the MAGA burn-the-system folks would complete their takeover of the Republican party.

While I have no love for Trump or the party he has commandeered, one thing I give Republicans credit for is having a bit of flexibility. Most of us had no confidence that Trump would actually win the nomination and become president. Even after he demolished the competition, debate after debate, we thought surely there would be something to stop this mess from happening. The same thing was playing out on the other side and that’s exactly what did happen! The Dems, terrified of losing their grip on the levers of power to an unknown, Independent entity named Bernie, used all their sway to make sure he didn’t take control away from them like Obama had done eight years prior. These two decisions: the GOP deciding to listen to voters and the Dems doing their best to ignore them, is likely what gave Trump the victory. If it does not bend, it will break.

So what happens next? Apparently the Supreme Court (which Trump largely installed) will tell us in the coming weeks after they decide whether states get to decide who goes on the ballot. You know, typical democracy will-of-the-voters stuff!

The political landscape of this country has shifted before and it is currently shifting again. How it ends nobody yet knows, but the parties that largely control our political destiny will not be the same as they are now forever.

I’m linking below a recent video from my favorite geopolitics writer Peter Zeihan which I think does a nice job (although I disagree with him that Trump can’t win) summing up how things have changed, might play out, and surely will get even weirder.

Vote!

-Clayton