2025 03 16

Farm outside Ashkum, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

When I began my Illinois Project (photographing the state outside of Chicago), I was smitten by scenes like this. I still find this image beautiful, but a year later, I now realize a big part of what drew me towards these images was my lack of prior experience with them. Now that I have folders full of them, the charm sort of wears off a bit and you start to understand nobody has the patience to look at more than one of these photos, if even that. Maybe I’m wrong?

I’ve continued making these photos and will revisit them in time. Peeking back at this image now, made roughly a year ago, gives me the thought that maybe there is more charm in the simplicity than I’d previously thought.

One other result from my recent foray into capturing rural Illinois is that I now completely love bare trees, where previously my brain would almost totally ignore them. Nature’s fireworks, I like to think. Only they happen at such a slow pace that most humans will never comprehend their beauty.

-Clayton

2025 03 15

Freight train rolls through Ashkum, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

One thing that draws me to rural Illinois is the trains. I dream of living the life of a hobo and creating a large body of work from that perspective, but know I don’t have it in me to do so. The idea of living a far less comfortable lifestyle in pursuit of art is one that fascinates me, but I’ve grown too reliant on air conditioning and Amazon next day delivery.

Also, I need to photograph things out of focus more often…

-Clayton

2025 03 14

Pizza Palace. Ashkum, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This photo is a visual representation of the Midwesterner’s saying “I’m living the dream.”

-Clayton