2024 04 01

Birds on the line, tweeting or something. Somewhere in northern Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

After watching a few more episodes of the video I mentioned yesterday, it’s remarkable how efficiently word travels these days through social media. Ed was lining up free places to stay, free pints of beer, clothing, meals, while his poor old kayak buddy was left to fend for himself, without social media on his side. There’s some sort of lesson in there but I’m not exactly sure what it is.

-Clayton

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

2025 03 27

Old Main Street is New Main Street. Canton, Illinois. March, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

I did a presentation today for APA Chicago with the theme being personal work. One of the things I discussed was my Ill Wandering work. It’s not work that I’ve spent much time assessing myself yet, as I’ve been more focused on allowing things to play out a bit more organically without forcing anything and focusing too much on any specific theme. That said, it was very much worthwhile to take a step back and further assess the photos I do have.

I’ll share more in the coming months and hope to get back out a bit more regularly this year to expand the body into something more substantial.

-Clayton

2025 03 17

Somewhere in northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Back from a gig down in St Louis and a few days of Ill Wandering (lots of time on the road — need to prioritize less driving next time) and I’m catching up on life, getting back into the routine of things. This week, I aim to make my new website go live. More on that soon. I’m also preparing for a talk going down in two weeks time in which myself and fellow photographer/friend Jason Little will discuss how we use personal work in our practice. I feel like lately all I do is personal work, so I should have much to discuss. I’ll aim to make it worthwhile for both those in attendance and myself.

-Clayton

PS - on the topic of photography, this video by Noah Kalina hit my feed today and I really enjoyed it. Give it a watch, if interested.

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

2025 03 13

North of Champaign, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

The big takeaway I had last year after my various Illinois Wandering sessions (which were admittedly not very focused and more of an afterthought) was that, while I was making some okay photos of cool scenes, none of the images really stood out as being strong enough to stand on their own. Sure, this image is beautiful (imo) and might work well in a series with other images providing meaning and backstory, but I’d been hoping to make work that would really stand out and be something I would be proud to show others. In reality, I was getting images that felt too pulled back and observational, like a tourist making snaps on the family vacation. I needed to be a part of the action. The images need to feel purposeful, powerful, and spark emotion. This shot is on the right track; it was made as a storm rolled over the plains, powerful to experience firsthand while being there in person, but a subject (a person, ideally) could’ve made it really stand on its own two feet as a strong image.

That’s the trouble with wandering around a rural state alone in your car — the amount of humans you encounter is remarkably small. I continually think of two possible solutions as I’m out on my own: The Crewdson Approach or the Soth Approach.

The obvious solution for a commercial photographer like myself, if wanting to make the strongest images possible, is to produce them like Crewdson does! Put a bunch of money into solving the problem. Get a van, fill it with people and props and a pre-planned road map and go make it happen. The challenge with this approach is that it’s not what drove me to explore my state in the first place. The resulting images may be “better” but any of the meaning I hope to create will be lost.

While it’s ultimately a far more challenging and time consuming approach, the honest, photojournalistic mentality is what’s been driving me to do this. I continually get the feeling while out exploring that I am in a place forgotten by the rest of the world, its time long passed. It’s wanting to document that feeling and emotion for a future audience that drives me to push through and continue exploring this approach to the work, while knowing full-well the strength of the images might suffer and the fine art galleries of New York City may never call.

My cast of characters should be the people who live and work in these places that I encounter, who understand and are at home in them. Pushing myself to get out of my comfort zone in order to access these photographic opportunities is the part that will be most challenging, but I am taking steps in that direction and so far it feels good.

-Clayton

2025 03 12

Somewhere in northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Everyone likes looking at photos of rural farmland, right??? Right?!

-Clayton

2025 03 11

Somewhere in Northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Catching up on posts as I’ve been on the road and didn’t have time to make them as I was busy shooting and wandering. It’s interesting looking back at these images from last March as I’ve made quite a lot of progress and changes to how I want to approach this project moving forward. More on that later!

-Clayton

2025 03 10

Somewhere in northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This week I’ll be doing some Ill Wandering while traveling to and from an assignment down in St Louis. I don’t have much planned out, but am excited to explore and document regions further south in the state. In additional to making photos, the goal is to also do some video and short interviews with strangers as well. This is part of yet another project I am working on, which I will talk more about soon.

-Clayton

2025 02 24

Streator, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Lately, I’ve been pondering excessively about what to focus my energies towards. Fortunately, I think my self-imposed marching orders have more or less been made and I am now on a path, for the remainder of the year at least, to see where it takes me.

One deterrent to creating new work is the internal struggle towards judging the work you haven’t yet created! Will it be unique enough? Will it be original? Will it stand out in a world so saturated with content it’s quite impossible to even comprehend!? The quote below, while clearly written in a time prior to social media, Ai, and content factories, helped bring some sanity to my overworked brain:

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it."

-C.S. Lewis

-Clayton

2025 02 19

Off-season tune-up. Somewhere in Northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This video by Bryan Birks is nice and is inspiring me to get back on the road asap. So many ideas I hope to explore in the not-too-distant future…

Also, I’m realizing I need to do a far better job of documenting where I make images as I make them.

-Clayton

2025 02 13

Moving things; ill wandering; somewhere outside Streator, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I’m going to sound like a boomer for a moment but I must say, I will never take for granted the sheer amount of things that happen, out of sight, in order to enable our lives to be smooth and easy. Easy is a very relative term, but that’s not my point. While it may feel like the world is rapidly spinning out of control at the moment, it is perhaps helpful to consider things could be far, far worse. It helps me, at least. A chicken in every pot.

-Clayton

2025 01 29

Man walks through park with dog. Champagne, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Here’s an example of an image which I like, but in reality is probably not a great image. It’s missing something that makes is special, yet has elements which make it special to me, as I lived the moment and it triggers things inside my head that an uninvolved onlooker (you) won’t have access to. I’d built up an elaborate narrative in my head about this man and what he was up to, which gave this image a story. The dreary setting only adds to the mystique for me, however, you likely look at it and see a boring parkscape, devoid of excitment. Could this image work in a series, with other images, giving it more meaning? Maybe. Does it hold up on it’s own as a single? No.

What do you think?

It does serve as a reminder for me that I need to get my ass back out on the road and make new work. I’ve been spending far too much time in my head, dreaming up new ideas that may never lead anywhere.

-Clayton

2025 01 21

Keeping up appearances. Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, Elwood, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This is not a political blog. Stocks are up. Get back to work!

Yesterday was tough. It wasn’t just the immediate pivot through a pen that put our country on an aggressive path (I don’t mind some well-meaning aggression); it wasn’t just the the billionaire tech oligarchy showing up at morning mass, followed by selfies in front of the Capitol, followed by the best seats in the house (as governors waited outside), to watch their guy get sworn in without bothering to touch a bible in the process; it wasn’t the crypto tokens issued solely at the benefit of putting billions of dollars into the hands of Trump and his family — peanut farms be dammed (“raise those flags, we’re celebrating”)!; it wasn’t just the ease at which Trump crammed in a full day of getting shit done, while his predecessor returned from another vacation, pardoned his entire family, and then flew off into the sunset never to be seen again; it wasn’t just the clear dog whistles, tone adjustment, and rewarding of behavior once seen as unlawful and unwanted — whatever it takes to make his vision a reality is now fully endorsed and embraced by the Supreme Court through whatever means deemed necessary — we’re living at the whims of one man, a man who has proven over and over to have a fragile ego and questionable character. He’s our man. Our dear leader, just as he wants it. 

Stocks are up. Nothing to see here. Get back to work! 

We finally have a real dude (not some Elite) in charge of things and he alone can fix it, as surely he will. All he needs is four more years of madness and everything will be great again.

Most people I know are choosing to ignore the news and actively avoid learning about what is now happening. I get it, it’s the clear best choice for maintaining your own sanity and keeping your house in order. Touching this madness in any way only leads to trouble. I made the decision to take it all in yesterday, to give myself a sense of what’s to come, and it left my brain hurt and heart confused. I get the outrage that led to this. I get the frustrations that led to this. I get the contempt for the Democratic Party that led to this. What I don’t understand, and what terrifies me, is how quickly we are ditching norms, scrapping laws, and enabling Trump’s darkest impulses — we’re no longer hiding the executive orders from him, we’re stacking them up high and signing them in front of a live studio audience! Rile up the base and blame anything that goes wrong (as it will) on the opposition, the immigrants, them. 

The Democratic Party is almost silent in response. The big guy who wears shorts to work is apparently switching sides this week. He likes to win, too, and there’s a feeling like the level-headed centrists and liberals will never win again. We have rolled over and are playing dead as the system now allows us almost no safeguards in opposition. Even a simple old blog post like this one feels kind of dangerous, like I’m about to be put on some list. Maybe I should’ve voted Trump to at least have that on my file.

How far into the darkest we go before voters take notice, if voting is still a thing after the dust settles, I do not know. But I fear we can only fight crazy with even-more-crazy and we’re now on a long and steady path towards madness.

This is not a political blog. Stocks are up. Get back to work!

-Clayton

2025 01 15

Lone tree. Somewhere outside Woodstock, Illinois. December, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Yesterday, some events went down that were quite eye opening for me. At this point, it’s rather well known how dangerous social media can be for our psychology, but that doesn’t stop most of us from using it all day, every day. I had a friend hit what I’d call rock bottom (he will disagree, of course), and it gave me some newfound urgency towards keeping better track of my own social media habits and usage.

There’s a link to an article below by Kyla Scanlon, which I also happened to read the same morning, which is quite brilliant and the the closest thing to required reading that I can think of in these wild times. While I somewhat disagree with Kyla on the point of TikTok specifically (I am in favor of a full ban without Chinese reciprocity), she is incredibly poignant in her thoughts and views on this countries’ use of social media broadly.

“The problem is that it’s an addiction. We are addicted to being informed, which makes complete sense, because we are little animals. If the rabbit could know exactly what danger it could or will face, it would be all over RabbitTok. Our little brains love knowing exactly what is up, and we love being nosy. These platforms haven't created these desires - they've just monetized them with unprecedented efficiency. But it’s making us inhumane.”

I read that passage and was like, yeah, she got me. She got us.

I highly urge you to check out her article here. And to limit your social media usage. Blogs are so much cooler, after all.

-Clayton

2025 01 07

A town without people. Old Shawneetown, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This morning, I woke up to the news that Getty Images was merging with Shutterstock. I then logged onto Threads and saw outrage from a photographer about how the companies now have a monopoly and that we photographers should not allow this to happen!

Fast forward to the end of the day. Out of curiosity, I checked the stock prices to see what the market thinks of this soon-to-be photography monopoly. Well, at first they loved it! Prices of both companies soared. Then, the market took a moment to think about why these two companies that dominate the photography world decided to merge into one mega company, and the frantic buying turned into frantic selling.

Getty was up an impressive 89% (!) in early trading today before ending the day up a more modest 17%.

Shutterstock was up 48% in early trading today before ending the day up a more modest 14%.

My immediate takeaway this morning was not that this newly-created mega company was going to kill the photography industry but that it was a necessary hail mary by two companies that see the writing on the wall. If they don’t do something, they will die. If they do do something, they will still probably die. Ai is inevitable and it’s depressing, to say the least, as someone who makes a living from making photos.

All this said, I don’t think photography is done. Hell, there will still even be quite a few people making a dang good living from photography for years to come. But the industry as a whole is in for a rough time and companies with market caps in the billions will no soon longer exist if their entire business depends on selling photography.

Good night, and good luck.

Now… back to the webinar I’m currently taking (along with three dozen other people!) on how to print photo zines. Yes, there is likely more demand than ever for making photos, which is cool! It’s the getting paid for making photos that will continue to get more challenging.

-Clayton

2025 01 01

Coming or going? Somewhere south of Rockford, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Becoming a Daily Blogger in 2025

Today marks the successful completion of a full year of daily blogging!

Five days. Five, damn, days. At the time, I didn’t care that I missed posting to this here blog for five days because I was busy getting married. That clearly takes priority to casual blog posting, which goes almost completely unnoticed. Now, looking back from the comfort of a new calendar year, I see it as a failure of my objective! Perhaps because I live in the United States and we tend to see things as all or nothing. Perhaps because I don’t have my priorities in order. Perhaps because my standards are so high I consider it a complete failure to only get 98.6% of the way towards reaching my goal. Whatever the reason, when I noticed this five day gap (I’d completely forgotten about it because, you know, it doesn’t really matter) I was furious with myself. Why hadn’t I anticipated and pre-loaded blog posts? Should I now “punish” myself, start the timer over, and do it all over again this year?

Let’s be honest, I probably don’t need to be sharing any old thought I have on the internet anymore. That said, I’ve made it clear from day one that the entire point of this here blog is for me, myself, and I. I’m doing this to improve my own writing skills, photo editing skills, and to think through various subjects. The fact that I am doing it publicly is a byproduct and not the main motivator, but it’s also a way to keep me honest and put pressure on myself to continue to show up. It’s how my brain works. 

As an example, I was doing my “morning pages” quite regularly for months after reading The Artist’s Way. This was super helpful, however, as soon as I got busy with other shit (like getting married) I completely cut out this habit without even realizing I had done so. In a way, this here blog is my own version of the morning pages. It’s my version of therapy and it gives me a chance to think. Hopefully it does more good than harm when it comes to my reputation and people reading my business! 

One quick story about a proud moment that justified the time I’ve dedicated to this here blog: I lost a big job we bid on this fall. We lost it, but we almost won it! This may sound insane but I was almost as happy by how close we came to being awarded the project as I would’ve been had we actually been awarded the project. If you’re in the biz, you know about these calls you have with the client and/or agency leading up to bidding on a big project. On this specific call, it became very apparent to me that we had no realistic shot at winning this bid (for a number of reasons, but an obvious one was that all the examples they showed us were images they glowingly described as exactly what they wanted to capture — they were all made by another photographer, whom they’d just worked with, who was also bidding on the project!). My takeaway from the call was that if we had any shot at getting the job, I needed to write a really good treatment.

Either the treatment worked or things changed beyond our control because we got the call that we were favorites for the job. It was all but guaranteed! Then, as happens, things changed again and we didn’t get the job. But I took it as a nice consolation prize and largely credited my habit of writing regularly with being the thing that put us over the top. 

Most likely, in the new year I will tweak my approach a bit. My main priority is to continue the writing. Whatever approach best enables me to do this is how I will go about it. Again, there are days when I simply don’t have the time to jot down something worth reading, and those days probably don’t need a post. Maybe I’ll make it a “photo a day” situation so I can more easily fulfill my lifelong dream of posting to a blog every day for a year (sarcasm?), while keeping the words to days when I do have something more meaningful to share. We’ll see.

Thinking bigger, I often say you need to go to where the people are if you want to see noticeable success, and the people are not hanging out on blogs. If I really wanted to take this project to the next level, a YouTube channel would be the obvious next step. Learning to communicate in video form, versus textually, is a skill that will take you places in this day and age. The reality, however, is that I likely only have the time for a more casual blog, like this here one, that exists mostly as a space for personal growth and exploration. Regardless, I appreciate you being here!

Happy New Year!

-Clayton

This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of posts, see 2024 12 25.