2025 03 31

Illinois and Michigan Canal. Lockport, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s the final day of March, so we’re roughly a quarter of the way through the year already, which is quite wild. That news has me in rather poor spirits as, while I’ve been keeping myself very busy with my own endless list of projects, the meat and potatoes work that pays the bills has been slow and I’ve yet to win a proper large commercial production. This in itself is not out of the ordinary, however, I’m extra sensitive these days with the studio overhead piling every higher and the growing sense of an economic slowdown on the horizon.

The industry talk I lead last week was both remarkably reassuring to hear such kind words and compliments towards my photography, and terrifying in that most everyone else is dealing with today’s challenging economic realities. Ho hum.

On a brighter note, I stumbled upon the video below and it gave me a much-needed spark of joy. I love the weird journeys us humans become obsessed with and this is both entertaining and educational. My brain always wonders about and imagines what grand rivers are like at their place of origin and this video thoroughly explores the River Thames in all of its glory, which is cool.

As I find myself pivoting back towards becoming an artist and personality that relies on my own vision and content to survive, starting that long-pondered youtube channel really seems like it will be in my near future.

-Clayton