Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2024 11 25

This morning, I woke up a bit grumpy, thinking about how success at my job has increasingly more to do with being good at sales than it does being good at photography. This isnā€™t just true for commercial photography but fine art, crafts, trades, etc.

Tonight, I read the latest Tim Kreider Loaf piece about how thereā€™s a show at The Met right now consisting of art made by employees of The Met. He sums it up humorously by saying the museum is promoting it as well as if they were hanging their childrenā€™s macaroni art up on the fridge. Is art worthy if it was made by the security guard of the art museum?

Is art better if it is made by an attractive female who gains tens of thousands of views via social media posts consisting of high-energy videos of herself? It is worse because of this?

Of course, none of this is new, but Iā€™ve been thinking about the landscape of the art world (you know, bananas taped to the wall and whatnot) a lot lately, as I myself wade deeper into art both through my photography and a documentary project, which is in the early stages of development. That documentary will likely explore these thoughts, ideas, and frustrations in further detail, so I need to figure out what art is. If anyone reading this knows, please leave it in the comment section below.

Thanks!

-Clayton

The art of skating as seen through neon art by Neon Mike. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck

This morning, I woke up a bit grumpy, thinking about how success at my job has increasingly more to do with being good at sales than it does being good at photography. This isnā€™t just true for commercial photography but fine art, crafts, trades, etc.

Tonight, I read the latest Tim Kreider Loaf piece about how thereā€™s a show at The Met right now consisting of art made by employees of The Met. He sums it up humorously by saying the museum is promoting it as well as if they were hanging their childrenā€™s macaroni art up on the fridge. Is art worthy if it was made by the security guard of the art museum?

Is art better if it is made by an attractive female who gains tens of thousands of views via social media posts consisting of high-energy videos of herself? It is worse because of this?

Of course, none of this is new, but Iā€™ve been thinking about the landscape of the art world (you know, bananas taped to the wall and whatnot) a lot lately, as I myself wade deeper into art both through my photography and a documentary project, which is in the early stages of development. That documentary will likely explore these thoughts, ideas, and frustrations in further detail, so I need to figure out what art is. If anyone reading this knows, please leave it in the comment section below.

Thanks!

-Clayton

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Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2024 08 08

Lollapalooza just wrapped up. I havenā€™t stepped foot in a music festival in many years. Today is my ten year anniversary with Allison (!!), who I met while we were both photographing a music festival (Pitchfork). I used to be young and somewhat cool but these days Iā€™m more concerned about the weather and crime. The news anchor made a comment that my old brain found amusing: during the weather report, they were discussing Lollapalooza and she mentioned that if you knew any of the names of the bands, you were cool. Chappell Roan performed to what has been reported to be the largest-ever crowd at Lollapalooza. I have no idea who Chappell Roan is. My first though was to wonder if she is somehow related to my friend Matt Roan. I am old, and not cool.

This whole getting old thing isnā€™t so bad, though. Sure I miss out an making photos of all the cool, young people. But I also have time to sit in my office and write blogs and watch the skateboarders down below me doing cool things without breaking a wrist or getting beer spilled on me. Yes I miss getting a front row view of the best bands in the world, but I recall ten years back writing a scathing blog about how I was DONE with music photography because it had become so over-saturated and demoralizing. I went looking for that text, which Iā€™m sure is massively embarrassing, entitled and self-important, and thankfully couldnā€™t find it. I did, however, find a gallery of images from my final fest assignment, the one I met my future wife at, and many of the images hold up! And yes, it does make me miss the days of concert photography, but Iā€™m also sitting on my couch chilling while watching another buddy do what I did fifteen years ago and I see how damn time consuming it is! The endless grind for little to no money. Late nights and early morning. Getting paid in social media mentions, if at all. Itā€™s definitely a job of passion and I used it as a spring board to get myself to another place.

While I may no longer be cool, I now have a ten-year relationship with a girl I love dearly and am about to tie the knot with. So I think it was a fair trade.

-Clayton

Watching the cool kids from my office. Slappy Curb. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck

Lollapalooza just wrapped up. I havenā€™t stepped foot in a music festival in many years. Today is my ten year anniversary with Allison (!!), who I met while we were both photographing a music festival (Pitchfork). I used to be young and somewhat cool but these days Iā€™m more concerned about the weather and crime. The news anchor made a comment that my old brain found amusing: during the weather report, they were discussing Lollapalooza and she mentioned that if you knew any of the names of the bands, you were cool. Chappell Roan performed to what has been reported to be the largest-ever crowd at Lollapalooza. I have no idea who Chappell Roan is. My first though was to wonder if she is somehow related to my friend Matt Roan (or local sports anchor Dan Roan). I am old, and not cool.

This whole getting old thing isnā€™t so bad, though. Sure I miss out an making photos of all the cool, young people. But I also have time to sit in my office and write blogs and watch the skateboarders down below me doing cool things without breaking a wrist or getting beer spilled on me. Yes I miss getting a front row view of the best bands in the world, but I recall ten years back writing a scathing blog about how I was DONE with music photography because it had become so over-saturated and demoralizing. I went looking for that text, which Iā€™m sure is massively embarrassing, entitled and self-important, and thankfully couldnā€™t find it. I did, however, find a gallery of images from my final fest assignment, the one I met my future wife at, and many of the images hold up! And yes, it does make me miss the days of concert photography, but Iā€™m also sitting on my couch chilling while watching another buddy do what I did fifteen years ago and I see how damn time consuming it is! The endless grind for little to no money. Late nights and early mornings. Getting paid in social media mentions, if at all. Itā€™s definitely a job of passion and I used it as a spring board to get myself to another place. There are days I regret this decision and wish Iā€™d stuck it out and continued focusing on the young, the cool, and the culture instead of chasing the financially-stable path.

While I may no longer be cool, I now have a ten-year relationship with a girl I love dearly and am about to tie the knot with. So I think it was a fair trade.

-Clayton

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Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2024 07 09

Too busy to blog. Relearning how to be a photographer. Busy drinking all the worldā€™s best coffees. Busy planning a wedding; relearning how to make film photos; learning how to make all of the cocktails; thinking of opening a bar. Busy coming up with new ways of making money. Too busy to blog.

-Clayton

Kimball Arts Center. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck

Too busy to blog. Relearning how to be a photographer. Busy drinking all the worldā€™s best coffees, scheming and dreaming. Busy planning a wedding; doing my morning pages; relearning how to make film photos; learning how to make all of the cocktails; thinking of opening a bar. Busy coming up with new ways of making money. Too busy to blog.

-Clayton

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Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2024 05 03

Iā€™ve returned from my big job in Atlanta and catching up on things. Maybe Iā€™ll write more about photographing big production assignments sometime. Itā€™s a fairly fascinating job. We took over an $800,000,000 airplane for the day, brought 40 people and a dozen trucks filled with endless stuff onto the busy airport tarmac, placed our ā€œsunā€ lights onto a giant lift platform to get them high into the sky, and then ran through seven scenarios as if we were enjoying a flight 30,000 ft in the sky when in fact we were safely down on earth. While everything is being faked, I pride myself on making everything feel as real and authentic (creative director buzz word alert!) as we possibly can.

Speaking of creative directors on big production assignments: this is Zach skateboarding at Slappy Curb outside my See You Soon studio. We met last year on a big production job and one fun fact about him is he does not have any social media accounts. How amazing is that?!?

-Clayton

Slappy Curb in late afternoon sunlight. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck

Iā€™ve returned from my big job in Atlanta and am catching up on things. Maybe Iā€™ll write more about photographing big production assignments sometime. Itā€™s a fairly fascinating job. We took over an $800,000,000 airplane for the day, brought 40 people and a dozen trucks filled with endless stuff onto the busy airport tarmac, placed our ā€œsunā€ lights onto a giant lift platform to get them high into the sky, and then ran through seven scenarios as if we were enjoying a flight 30,000 ft in the sky when in fact we were safely down on earth. While everything is being faked, I pride myself on making everything feel as real and authentic (creative director buzz word alert!) as we possibly can.

Speaking of creative directors on big production assignments: this is Zach skateboarding at Slappy Curb outside my See You Soon studio. We met last year on a big production assignment and one fun fact about Zach is he does not have any social media accounts. How amazing is that?!?

Image made from my first roll off teh Contax T2. I tried pre-focusing on the pavement, anticipating where heā€™d end up, which worked a bit but didnā€™t quite nail it. The fun thing about shooting film is these imperfections often only enhance the image, anyway.

-Clayton

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Clayton Hauck Clayton Hauck

2024 04 05

Sunsets are like a photographer cheat code. Itā€™s easy to make a nice photo with a brilliant sunset. Because of this, sunset photos are cliche and not really something professional photographers like to make photos of, unless they are mentally-healthy mainstream photographers.

One of my best ideas was an app that has one and only one task (aside from gathering emails to monetize): send you a push notification when a pretty sunset is happening near you. Iā€™ll never act on this idea so I will give it to you, dear reader, to act on and become an overnight millionaire.

Yesterday I briefly partook in a ā€œphoto walkā€ now that I am a film photographer and people take me seriously (before sneaking off early and going back to my studio to edit my clientā€™s digital photos which are due before I can leave town and make more digital photos for another project). I spotted a fun scene in an alley and raised my Contax to make a serious film photo. It was subtle, just the way a carā€™s headlights were bounding off a puddle halfway between us, but just after snapping a frame, I heard an audible sigh from a photo walk participant as he mockingly-proclaimed, ā€œan alley photo!ā€ Just as instant shame set in, but before I even had a chance to turn around and awkwardly defend myself, but annoyingly just after I made the image, a massive airliner dramatically emerged from the overcast skies perfectly placed in my composition like a phantom sign that I indeed was on to something.

Sunset scene with a skateboarder making use of the popular Slappy Curbs spot outside the Kimball Arts Center. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck

Sunsets are like a photographer cheat code. Itā€™s easy to make a nice photo with a brilliant sunset. Because of this, sunset photos are cliche and not really something professional photographers like to make photos of, unless they are mentally-healthy mainstream photographers.

One of my best ideas was an app that has one and only one task (aside from gathering emails to monetize): send you a push notification when a pretty sunset is happening near you. Iā€™ll never act on this idea so I will give it to you, dear reader, to act on and become an overnight millionaire.

Yesterday I briefly partook in a ā€œphoto walkā€ now that I am a film photographer and people take me seriously (before sneaking off early and going back to my studio to edit my clientā€™s digital photos which are due before I can leave town and make more digital photos for another project). I spotted a fun scene in an alley and raised my Contax to make a serious film photo. It was subtle, just the way a carā€™s headlights were bounding off a puddle halfway between us, but just after snapping a frame, I heard an audible sigh from a photo walk participant as he mockingly-proclaimed, ā€œan alley photo!ā€ Just as instant shame set in, but before I even had a chance to turn around and awkwardly defend myself, but annoyingly just after I made the image, a massive airliner dramatically emerged from the overcast skies perfectly placed in my composition like a phantom sign that I indeed was on to something.

Follow your instincts. Donā€™t let the haters bring you down. Shoot the pretty sunset if it makes you happy. Shoot more film (and digital to pay for the film).

-Clayton

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