2024 09 07
Art is making choices, argues Ted Chiang in his recent piece on Ai for The New Yorker, which Iāve seen making the rounds on social media. I always find that, after a shoot day in which Iām typically producing thousands of images, I am both mentally and physically exhausted. The thing that doesnāt get as much attention when creating art is the sheer brain power required while doing it. Itās a never-ending flow of small and large decisions which compound and add up, eventually becoming the final product.
The original quote in Tedās piece which caught my attention was this:
āThe task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world.ā
Reading this makes so much sense and helps to explain why Iām quite negative on all things artificial intelligence. This also reminded me that I pay for a New Yorker subscription and should give the full text a read, which you should also do if you have access to it! Upon doing so, a few more quotes which I enjoyed are as follows:
āart requires making choices at every scale; the countless small-scale choices made during implementation are just as important to the final product as the few large-scale choices made during the conception. It is a mistake to equate ālarge-scaleā with āimportantā when it comes to the choices made when creating art; the interrelationship between the large scale and the small scale is where the artistry lies.ā
āGenerative A.I. appeals to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium. But the creators of traditional novels, paintings, and films are drawn to those art forms because they see the unique expressive potential that each medium affords. It is their eagerness to take full advantage of those potentialities that makes their work satisfying, whether as entertainment or as art.ā
ā¦as Charlie Parker said: if you donāt live it, it wonāt come out of your horn.
-Clayton
With just a bit more data collection, we can make the world a better place! Chicago, Illinois. July, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Art is making choices, argues Ted Chiang in his recent piece on Ai for The New Yorker, which Iāve seen making the rounds on social media. I always find that, after a shoot day in which Iām typically producing thousands of images, I am both physically and mentally exhausted. The thing that doesnāt get as much attention when creating art is the sheer brain power required while doing it. Itās a never-ending flow of small and large decisions which compound and add up, eventually becoming the final product.
The original quote in Tedās piece which caught my attention was this:
āThe task that generative A.I. has been most successful at is lowering our expectations, both of the things we read and of ourselves when we write anything for others to read. It is a fundamentally dehumanizing technology because it treats us as less than what we are: creators and apprehenders of meaning. It reduces the amount of intention in the world.ā
Reading this makes so much sense and helps to explain why Iām quite negative on all things artificial intelligence. This also reminded me that I pay for a New Yorker subscription and should give the full text a read, which you should also do if you have access to it! Upon doing so, a few more quotes which I enjoyed are as follows:
āart requires making choices at every scale; the countless small-scale choices made during implementation are just as important to the final product as the few large-scale choices made during the conception. It is a mistake to equate ālarge-scaleā with āimportantā when it comes to the choices made when creating art; the interrelationship between the large scale and the small scale is where the artistry lies.ā
āGenerative A.I. appeals to people who think they can express themselves in a medium without actually working in that medium. But the creators of traditional novels, paintings, and films are drawn to those art forms because they see the unique expressive potential that each medium affords. It is their eagerness to take full advantage of those potentialities that makes their work satisfying, whether as entertainment or as art.ā
ā¦as Charlie Parker said: if you donāt live it, it wonāt come out of your horn.
-Clayton
2024 08 12
Hereās a lil sneak peek post. I had grand ambitions this year to work on a personal photo project, with the aim of turning the work into a photobook, coveringā¦ Illinois. There was no specific vision or goal but more of a visual exploration of the state outside of Chicago (getting to every county outside of Cook was the rough idea). This year has been way busier than anticipated so the amount of time Iāve been able to invest in this project has been far less than Iād wanted. That said, Iām fine with this becoming more of a longer-term ongoing project, which surely will evolve along with myself as the days and years pass.
Iāll write more about this in the future but perhaps the biggest internal struggle Iāve been having has been regarding what the vibe of the project should be. Do I want it to be more artistic, ambiguous, aesthetic or do I want it to be more photojournalistic, authentic, approachable? My worry is that turning this project into a ātour of Illinoisā farmland wonāt be all that exciting and Iām getting the sense I need to tap into the human element as much as, if not more than, the natural landscapes. This photo is beautiful and the tree is incredible, but is a book full of this kind of stuff really worth all the effort? I think it needs to evolve into something capturing a more deeper meaning.
-Clayton
The sun sets over farmland outside Onarga, Illinois. June, 2024.
Hereās a lil sneak peek post. I had grand ambitions this year to work on a personal photo project, with the aim of turning the work into a photobook, coveringā¦ Illinois. There was no specific vision or goal but more of a visual exploration of the state outside of Chicago (getting to every county outside of Cook was the rough idea). This year has been way busier than anticipated so the amount of time Iāve been able to invest in this project has been far less than Iād wanted. That said, Iām fine with this becoming more of a longer-term ongoing project, which surely will evolve along with myself as the days and years pass.
Iāll write more about this in the future but perhaps the biggest internal struggle Iāve been having has been regarding what the vibe of the project should be. Do I want it to be more artistic, ambiguous, aesthetic or do I want it to be more photojournalistic, authentic, approachable? My worry is that turning this project into a ātour of Illinoisā farmland wonāt be all that exciting and Iām getting the sense I need to tap into the human element as much as, if not more than, the natural landscapes. This photo is beautiful and the tree is incredible, but is a book full of this kind of stuff really worth all the effort? I think it needs to evolve into something capturing a more deeper meaning.
Iād love to open up more of a dialogue on this here blog so if youāre seeing this and have some thoughts, whatever they may be, I encourage you to jot them down into the comment section below!
-Clayton
2024 07 24
Speaking of learning new things out of necessity, Iāve been doing a decent amount of photo stitching with my Ricoh GRiiix, which is the camera I use to make a vast majority of the images Iāve been posting to this blog. This image here was made from 3-4 different images taken with the intention of merging them into one final shot. Why do this, you ask? Well, my version of the Ricoh is the longer lens 40mm-equivalent, which makes capturing wider scenes, such as this massive tree, not possible from up close. In general, I prefer the slightly longer focal length, so when I really want a nicer image but the camera is not wide enough to get it, Iāll often capture the scene in multiple frames and stitch them together using Photoshopās automate feature, which does a really nice job of it. In addition to creating the wider visual, it also creates an image with much higher resolution that a single image using a wider lens would make.
Not that I need more res for blogging but itās a cool way of doing low-budget pseudo-medium format.
-Clayton
Catalpa on the corner. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Speaking of learning new things out of necessity, Iāve been doing a decent amount of photo stitching with my Ricoh GRiiix, which is the camera I use to make a vast majority of the images Iāve been posting to this blog. This image here was made from 3-4 different images taken with the intention of merging them into one final shot. Why do this, you ask? Well, my version of the Ricoh is the longer lens 40mm-equivalent, which makes capturing wider scenes, such as this massive tree, not possible from up close. In general, I prefer the slightly longer focal length, so when I really want a nicer image but the camera is not wide enough to get it, Iāll often capture the scene in multiple frames and stitch them together using Photoshopās automate feature, which does a really nice job of it. In addition to creating the wider visual, it also creates an image with much higher resolution that a single image using a wider lens would make.
Not that I need more res for blogging but itās a cool way of doing low-budget pseudo-medium format.
-Clayton
2024 05 30
While on a long jog this morning (brag) I was reminded of something that reeeeally annoyed me before I started driving an electric car (brag) and no longer had to think about it.
Running past the abandoned former emissions testing facility in Bucktown where I used to take my Ford Focus, the frustration came back to me and reminded me about why sometimes government logic can be super annoying. Not wanting this to be a political rant, Iāll keep it brief, as Iām likely getting some details wrong anyway since Iām going off years-old memories at this point.
During the previous Illinois (Republican) governorās term, the state outsourced the operation of all its car emissions testing facilities, likely arguing small government efficiencies or whatever. Surely, some loyal big shot operator who just so happens to spend big come political donation season got awarded the contract to take over operations of the entire stateās facilities.
One day, I opened my mail to discover it was time to take my trusty Focus in for its test. Unbeknownst to me, the conveniently located facility located roughly one mile from my house and central to the homes of some 3 million other fellow Chicagoans was no longer an option. Instead, the closest facility to me was now inconveniently located over 10 miles away in suburban Skokie. Confused as to why Chicago (far and away the largest city in the state) no longer had a single facility, I did some digging to figure out what was going on. Sure enough, the state outsourced the service, as mentioned, and the new operator was following the state-mandated requirements as efficiently as they could to maximize their profits.
Facilities need to be within x miles of x people, yada yada, plug all the data into the computer and Skokie is now where every Chicagoan needs to drive their car to get an efficiency test to, you know, make sure they arenāt polluting the environment. When you consider the added miles 3 million Chicagoans now need to drive, whatever benefits you are getting from taking a few dirty cars off the road are now likely a net negative anyway. Then, when you consider how much money the state is āsavingā by outsourcing this service, you need to consider all this extra wear and tear on the roads, additional accidents, wasted hours, etc, from people driving more trips and all those savings likely go out the window as well. Sure, my math is full of guesstimating here, but maybe you see my point.
Itās like government whack-a-mole: solve one problem and create a new, different problem. As long as your doner pals are getting a piece of the public pie, nobody is none the wiser!
-Clayton
Cars on highway driving into the sunset. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
While on a long jog this morning (brag) I was reminded of something that reeeeally annoyed me before I started driving an electric car (brag).
Running past the abandoned former emissions testing facility in Bucktown where I used to take my Ford Focus, the frustration came back to me and reminded me about why sometimes government logic can be super annoying. Not wanting this to be a political rant, Iāll keep it brief, as Iām likely getting some details wrong anyway since Iām going off years-old memories at this point.
During the previous Illinois (Republican) governorās term, the state outsourced the operation of all its car emissions testing facilities, likely arguing small-government efficiencies or whatever. Surely, some loyal big shot operator who just so happens to spend big come political donation season got awarded the contract to take over operations of the entire stateās facilities.
One day, I opened my mail to discover it was time to take my trusty Focus in for its test. Unbeknownst to me, the conveniently located facility that was roughly one mile from my house and central to the homes of some 3 million other fellow Chicagoans was no longer an option. Instead, the closest facility to me was now inconveniently located over 10 miles away in suburban Skokie. Confused as to why Chicago (far and away the largest city in the state) no longer had a single facility available to its residents, I did some digging to figure out what was going on. Sure enough, the state outsourced the service, as mentioned, and the new operator was following the state-mandated requirements as efficiently as they could to maximize their profits.
Facilities need to be within x miles of x people, yada yada, plug all the data into the computer and Skokie is now where every Chicagoan needs to drive their car to get an efficiency test to, you know, make sure they arenāt polluting the environment. When you consider the added miles 3 million Chicagoans now need to drive, whatever benefits we are getting from taking a few dirty cars off the road are now likely a net negative because of all the extra driving. Then, when you consider how much money the state is āsavingā by outsourcing this service, you need to consider all this extra wear and tear on the roads, additional accidents, wasted hours, etc, from people driving more trips and all those savings likely go out the window as well. Sure, my math is full of guesstimating here, but maybe you see my point.
Itās like government whack-a-mole: solve one problem and create a new, different problem. As long as your doner pals are getting a piece of the public pie, nobody is none the wiser!
-Clayton
2024 04 30
Today Iām in Atlanta making photographs in an airplane at the airport for a major commercial client. While I have no idea how the shoot is going since I am writing this a few days before it happens, I have no doubt itās going smooth and the images we are making are incredible. The big challenge on this specific project will be to light the airplane as if itās 30,000ft in the sky with sun streaming into the windows, when in reality we will be parked on the ground in a likely dark hangar with a bunch of mechanics driving around and grumpy about all of the people who donāt belong in their workspace.
Sorry, mechanics.
-Clayton
Sunset on Milwaukee Ave. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Today Iām in Atlanta making photographs in an airplane at the airport for a major commercial client. While I have no idea how the shoot is going since I am writing this a few days before it happens, I have no doubt itās going smooth and the images we are making are incredible. The big challenge on this specific project will be to light the airplane as if itās 30,000ft in the sky with sun streaming into the windows, when in reality we will be parked on the ground in a likely dark hangar with a bunch of mechanics driving around and grumpy about all of the people who donāt belong in their workspace.
Sorry, mechanics.
-Clayton
2024 04 05
Sunsets are like a photographer cheat code. Itās 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. Iāll 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 āphoto 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 clientās 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 carās 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, āan 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. Itās 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. Iāll 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 āphoto 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 clientās 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 carās 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, āan 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. Donāt 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
2024 03 28
Iām a writer now! In learning how to make a living at my new profession, I stumbled across this bit of wisdom from Jason Zweig of the WSJ who says there are three (3) ways to be a professional writer:
Lie to people who want to be lied to and youāll get rich.
Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and youāll make a living.
Tell the truth who those who want to be lied to, and youāll go broke.
Please come back tomorrow to read my breakdown on 50 ways to get insanely rich without doing a lick of work. I swear this list is vetted and is a favorite of Warren Buffet and Sir Edmund Blackadder. Blackadder did a ten-part Masterclass breaking down how heās made over $20 billion and only let in 24 students who each had to pay $1 million, which he donated to charity because heās a Sir. I was fortunate enough to be one of the class members and will release my gained wisdoms in tomorrowās blog to you, dear reader who wants to be lied to, in exchange for one page view to help inflate my depressed ego ā see you tomorrow!
-Clayton
PS- this Zweig nugget is brilliant and applies to life in general, not just writing. It was mentioned in Morgan Houselās book Same as Ever, which I will hopefully go into more in a future blog entry. Itās full of amazing wisdom, most of which can be found on his blog. His previous book The Psychology of Money is fantastic and highly recommended as well.
Bare apple tree in winter with a pretty sunset above. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Iām a writer now! In learning how to make a living at my new profession, I stumbled across this bit of wisdom from Jason Zweig of the WSJ who says there are three (3) ways to be a professional writer:
Lie to people who want to be lied to and youāll get rich.
Tell the truth to those who want the truth, and youāll make a living.
Tell the truth who those who want to be lied to, and youāll go broke.
Please come back tomorrow to read my breakdown on 50 ways to get insanely rich without doing a lick of work. I swear this list is vetted and is a favorite of Warren Buffet and Sir Edmund Blackadder. Blackadder did a ten-part Masterclass breaking down how heās made over $20 billion and only let in 24 students who each had to pay $1 million, which he donated to charity because heās a Sir. I was fortunate enough to be one of the class members and will release my gained wisdoms in tomorrowās blog to you, dear reader who wants to be lied to, in exchange for one page view to help inflate my depressed ego ā see you tomorrow!
-Clayton
PS- this Zweig nugget is brilliant and applies to life in general, not just writing. It was mentioned in Morgan Houselās book Same as Ever, which I will hopefully go into more in a future blog entry. Itās full of amazing wisdom, most of which can be found on his company blog. His previous book The Psychology of Money is fantastic and highly recommended as well.
2024 03 22
Having spent a good deal of time in small rural Illinois towns recently, in towns that feel largely forgotten to time, hollowed out and missing a majority of their people, towns with cemetery populations larger than that of their living, it was quite eye opening when I stumbled across a statistic recently. Of Americaās wealthiest large cities by median household income, in the year 1949, you would never guess which names topped the list when driving their streets today. Sure, if youāre a student of US history, you can probably guess some of the names, but even still they were quite shocking to me. Before the Rust Belt was a place, the Steel Belt was a place and it was home to prosperous and growing cities which built much of the worldās most valuable products. Before these factories were outsourced and moved overseas, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America, in the top spot on this list. Subsequently, Detroitās population (once 1.8 million) declined by well more than half (to a just over 600,000 today) leaving much of the city empty and abandoned. My parents both grew up in Milwaukee, which was at the time the third wealthiest city in the country by these metrics, and out of ten combined siblings only one remains there today.
Everything dies, even cities. But unexpected upsides occur as a result of hard times. Thereās such a large supply of cheap houses in many of these towns, itās not hard to imagine an influx of young people from across the country desperate to get a taste of the Remains of the American Dream. Weāve already seen Detroit rebound rather remarkably from its recent rock bottom. Last weekend I had fancy cocktails in both Ottawa and Rochelle, Illinois, both in beautifully-restored buildings on their charming old Main Streets.
These trends played out over decades and were caused by a wide range of reasons, however, when viewed in such stark contrast of then vs. now, it seems hard to believe Cleveland was once the second wealthiest city in America in my dadās lifetime! While this is super fascinating in itās own right and a subject that can be examined with endless depth, what gets me even more interested is exploring how these trends might play out in the future. Demography is destiny, they say, and a large number of developed countries around the world are now losing population. If we correlate what happened to Americaās Midwest to the rest of the world, will Japan become the next Ohio? Will Seoul soon look Pittsburgh-esque? Or will the Rust Belt rise again and overtake China as the next global mega power?
Iām off to buy some property in Peoriaā¦
-Clayton
The 606 Trail during sunset. It was formerly an industrial freight line and today largely serves a purpose of leisure. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. Ā© Clayton Hauck
Having spent a good deal of time in small rural Illinois towns recently, in towns that feel largely forgotten to time, hollowed out and missing a majority of their people, towns with cemetery populations larger than that of their living, it was quite eye opening when I stumbled across a statistic recently. Of Americaās wealthiest large cities by median household income, in the year 1949, you would never guess which names topped the list when driving their streets today. Sure, if youāre a student of US history, you can probably guess some of the names, but even still they were quite shocking to me. Before the Rust Belt was a place, the Steel Belt was a place and it was home to prosperous and growing cities which built much of the worldās most valuable products. Before these factories were outsourced and moved overseas, Detroit was the wealthiest city in America, in the top spot on this list. Subsequently, Detroitās population (once 1.8 million) declined by about two-thirds (to a just over 600,000 today) leaving much of the city empty and abandoned. My parents both grew up in Milwaukee, which was at the time they kids the third wealthiest city in the country by these metrics, but out of ten combined siblings only one remains there today.
Everything dies, even cities. But unexpected upsides occur as a result of hard times and cities are capable of surviving far longer than individual humans. Thereās such a large supply of cheap houses in many of these towns, itās not hard to imagine an influx of young people from across the country desperate to get a taste of the Remains of the American Dream. Weāve already seen Detroit rebound rather remarkably from its recent rock bottom. Last weekend I had fancy cocktails in both Ottawa and Rochelle, Illinois, both in beautifully-restored buildings on their charming old Main Streets.
These trends played out over decades and were caused by a wide variety of reasons, however, when viewed in such stark contrast of then vs. now, it seems hard to believe Cleveland was once the second wealthiest city in America in my parentsā lifetime! While this is super fascinating in itās own right and a subject that can be examined with endless depth, what gets me even more interested is exploring how these trends might play out in the future. Demography is destiny, they say, and a large number of developed countries around the world are now losing population, just as Americaās Rust Belt has in recent history. If we correlate what happened to the Rust Belt to the rest of the world, will Japan become the next Ohio? Will Seoul soon look Pittsburgh-esque? Or will the Rust Belt rise again and overtake China as the next global mega power?
Iām off to buy some property in Peoriaā¦
-Clayton