2025 10 20
No exit. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Between cleaning up the studio after a morning shoot in preparation for a bookshop popup tomorrow morning and studio event tomorrow evening, this video (below) popped into my feed and was thoroughly enjoyed by myself. As I’ve been unable to travel much these days in lieu of giving myself too many jobs back home, I really enjoy watching how Mike Okay traverses the world by himself with minimal plans or support. It’s an extreme way to do it, sure, but it often illuminates the positive side of humanity in ways that are hard to articulate in words. Maybe I’ve shared his videos here before, I forget. But if you haven’t yet seen one of his travelogs, I highly recommend checking the out.
-Clayton
2025 10 18
Night scene. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Having lived in the same general area for twenty-some years now, it’s always a memorable moment when I stumble down a street that I’d never previously been down. This was one of those streets and I loved the vibes of this house.
The other day, I had the thought that it would be nice to make this blog a bit more robust, immediate, and interactive. I could post and write about things as they happen in my life and make the whole thing a bit more purposeful, instead of the random spur-of-the-moment grab bag it has been lately. But considering I’m days behind on posting and severely behind on other life tasks, I’m not sure how realistic of an idea this is. All that said, I think a bit part of why I’m so behind on various parts of my life lately is in fact because they are lacking a defined purpose. Posting a photo a day just because is nice in theory, but what’s the deeper meaning behind doing so? Is is just because I have folders full of images and I need to put them somewhere? That’s nice, but it’s not keeping the creative juices flowing as much as it had been and perhaps it is time to find a new angle around here.
-Clayton
2025 10 15
Free money. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I’ve really been going through it at work lately. My boss is just riding me very hard and I’m putting all of my waking hours into the job with no downtime to relax and enjoy life. The irony, of course, is that I am my own boss and these jobs I’m doing are of my own making (photography gigs, studio managing, bookshop tasks). While sitting in the newly-renovated Old Post Office eating a sandwich for lunch, after wrapping two early morning editorial portraits, it hit me — in my two decades of doing photography as a job, I can’t recall ever taking a single “sick day” or missing an assignment due to being sick, crabby, too tired, etc. Sure, non-shoot days are different and I fuck off quite regularly, but as a freelancer, it’s not really possible to miss an assignment for nearly any reason.
This thought occurred to me after I’d had an especially hilarious run of work, spending all weekend at the studio editing photos and managing events. A Sunday dinner event went late and I ended up leaving the studio at 1am, setting my alarm for 5:30am, getting up on three hours of sleep and driving myself to the south side to do a scheduled portrait shoot. As I frantically cleaned up the studio as efficiently as I could (the studio had to get clean as there was also a casting the following morning), I laughed at the situation I’d put myself in.
If I had a “normal job,” it would’ve been a no brainer to fib being sick and sleep in that following morning. But I’m a freelance photographer, so off I went to make the images.
The weird thing is, I’m glad it played out like this! Had I been able to skip the work day, I would’ve missed the most incredible sunrise I’d ever experienced as I drove downtown on the fluid, pre-rush hour Kennedy Expressway. The first portrait shoot went well; I met a stray cat; then I had a few hours of time to myself to explore Hyde Park and the surrounding area (been amazed by how big and beautiful Chicago is lately). I stopped in to Powell’s and grabbed a few photobooks before heading to my second shoot downtown, which was also an enjoyable one. After wrapping that, it was sandwich time, where I pondered the weirdness of my jobs and my life, while feeling fortunate I had it this way, despite the occasional extreme situations I find myself in.
-Clayton
2025 10 14
Allison gets into a burger. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 10 13
Vines, making their move. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 10 11
Sunflowers. Chicago, Illinois. August. 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Whenever someone dies, immediately everyone jumps on social media and talks about how they are affected by the passing. I’m not sure why, but I’ve always been bothered by this. It’s no secret humans love to make everything about themselves. Someone’s end becomes your new cause for a minute, a day. Maybe this isn’t such a bad thing, after all. I think it triggers my Selfish Radar, which admittedly is fine-tuned, as I’m endlessly bothered by thinking of myself first.
I met Tony Fitzpatrick only briefly, a few months back, at the memorial service for my artist friend Cooper. Tony was nice, well spoken, and thoughtful. My imposter syndrome kicked in later after looking up his work and realizing I both loved it and had seen it around, yet wasn’t able to connect the dots and know who the face was behind the art.
Being an artist is a damn hard line of work. Tony’s work was incredible and he was, by all account from my own social network, one of the city’s finest — yet I hardly knew him. Maybe I am an imposter or maybe it’s just really damn hard to get people to see your genius, even when you have it in spades.
-Clayton
2025 10 08
Chair. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Have a seat, why don’t I? I’m days behind on updating this here blog, and it’s mostly because I haven’t had a moment of time to myself this week.
-Clayton
2025 10 06
No outlet. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
This new Casey Neistat video is more or less what’s been playing in my head for the last year or so. Still worth a watch as it’s quite funny.
Last week I unfollowed a photographer artificial intelligence influencer on LinkedIn because all she posts about is leveraging ai for commercial use. I’m just so over it. You can find me at the book shop.
-Clayton
2025 10 05
Heading south? Chicago, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
It’s finally time for fall, maybe?
-Clayton
2025 10 03
Art For Sale! Chicago, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
As someone who has avoiding marketing at all costs for the entirety of his commercial photography career, I can tell you with ease that I hate it. The only way I’ve done it in the past is by somehow tricking myself into enjoying it (doing blogs, doing affordable headshots, opening a studio, yada yada). These are not really solutions but, in practice, new jobs that don’t efficiently help with marketing my core offerings. I know all this, yet persist. I still have a long way to go, but at least I’m finally acknowledging the problem and starting to make an effort.
This year, my two biggest areas of focus, broadly speaking, have been:
1) Changing my tendency to want to do everything alone. I need people if I’m ever going to succeed at scale (scale being relative here; I’m not looking to sell a startup or IPO).
2) Communication. Nobody will ever know the cool things I’m doing if I don’t tell or show them (duh!?)
This video below popped into my feed and was a really thoughtful and clear summary of what’s been on my mind a lot lately (also, his vibe is like the opposite of most influencer types, which is incredibly refreshing in itself). If you’re like me and loathe selling yourself as an artist, as a business, as a human, I’d give it a watch and maybe you can find some worthwhile tidbits as I did myself.
-Clayton
2025 09 30
Mysterious house. Chicago, Illinois. October, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I’m not entirely sure why, but most times I pass this house I feel an urge to make a photo of it.
-Clayton
2025 09 21
MP shows off his battle scars. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
We’ve now done 11 Realm popups. It has become a real job quicker than I’d imagined. It doesn’t help that my partner is out of the country this month, leaving me with much of the work to handle myself. I don’t mind it, but am starting to notice myself falling behind on things I’d previously been on top of, like updating this here blog.
I’m due to get some more thoughts out and writing helps me do that. Aiming to get a post about my portraits project up this week, and perhaps another one on the bookshop if I can find the time.
-Clayton
2025 09 14
Allison. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Today is the one-year anniversary of our wedding. Off to celebrate, a bit!
-Clayton
2025 09 13
Neon art. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
I have a friend who is having weird thoughts. I’m beginning to get concerned. He wants to be an artist, he says. He’s doing all sorts of things that don’t make any logical sense. He wiped his social media clear of all normal photos. No selfies, no family, no friends. People are calling him, asking him what’s the meaning of all this. To this, he calmly explains himself, but this only gets the people even more riled up and angry. I think a wellness check is in order. Maybe he’s got a couple screws loose. I think I need to distance myself from him; to claim I never met the fella.
-Clayton
