2025 12 01

Keep Havin a Good Day! Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Soooo close to being caught up on posts, yet still so far! This entire year has felt like I’m running on one of those moving walkways you find at the airport only I’m heading in the wrong direction. Doing far too many things so the gains all feel small and insignificant in the moment. Hopefully when I take a beat to relax and catch up on life, I’ll have a chance to take it all in and see and appreciate the gains. If not, I’ll have this picture hanging on my wall to keep me sane.

-Clayton

2025 11 30

Kid on break. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

I’ve become quite obsessed with my fake internet visitors from China. Over 76% (up from 73%) of This Here Blog’s traffic comes from Unknown, China. While it’s quite clear these are not real people and I must be on some ominous list, it’s remarkable how the dopamine hits to my brain are still pleased by the jump in “engagement.” Once the mysterious computers in a dark basement in Shanghai get redirected elsewhere, I’ll feel like this distraught kid on the floor, wondering where all my imaginary friends ran off to.

-Clayton

2025 11 29

Bugs gunna bug. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Are You a Killer?

You have to kill. It’s a non-negotiable. Are you killing people or animals or ideas or dreams? In order to advance in this world, you have to be a killer. This is my biggest internal struggle. It’s a core belief, because it’s a fact. If you want to be or do anything, you need to kill. If you refuse to kill anything, you yourself will soon perish. Survival of the fittest they call it. But something I wonder, what’s the point of all the killing. Can’t we just be friends and lay in the prairie and enjoy the flowers? Even now, I’m killing the vibe.

-Clayton

2025 11 28

Plant. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

-Clayton

2025 11 27

The 606 in winter. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

It used to be that I’d walk the 606 almost daily, as my studio and home are both located alongside of it. These days, however, I find myself taking a different path, through the neighborhood, mostly because it’s a slightly more direct and quicker route. The few minutes saved on each trip may add up over time and allow me to be more productive, but realistically the scenes and human encounters I am missing as a result are likely more detrimental. There’s a clever analogy in here somewhere but I’ll let you figure it out. I don’t have time for that today.

-Clayton

2025 11 26

Night shade. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Almost caught up on posts! I vow to never fall so behind again! Will this here blog exist in 2026?

-Clayton

2025 11 25

That Tiny House. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Here it is! My oldest known capture of That Tiny House on the Ricoh GRiiix. Perhaps it will be a book one day.

Follow the tag link to see more! One logistical issue I’m a little bummed about is that I start a new blog each year and I’m unable to carry tags over from previous years. Maybe one day I will find myself with far too much time on my hands and I will migrate everything over to a new platform. But realistically I doubt this day will come.

-Clayton

2025 11 24

New flag, who dis? Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Previously, I wrote about how much of the traffic to this here blog has been coming from China (See: 2025 11 07). Well, that trend has only accelerated since that post and I’m now seeing over 70% of all traffic being of Chinese-origin. The only logical conclusions I can draw from this are:

1. I’m big in China!

2. My previous most frequent site visitor (my mom) has a computer so riddled with Chinese spyware and malware that her USA-based desktop computer is showing up as being Chinese.

3. My blog host (Squarespace) recently sold out to private equity and the new owners are boosting traffic to owners of websites with fragile egos (myself) in hopes to get us to stick around and pay them more money.

Whatever the actual reason for this situation, I will now translate each blog post into Mandarin Chinese (for my loyal readers who never comment and may not be human) in hopes to further increase my reach in my new favorite country:

之前我写过，这个博客的大部分流量都来自中国（参见：2025年11月7日）。自从那篇文章之后，这个趋势只增不减，现在我看到超过 70% 的访问量都来自中国。对此我只能得出以下几个合乎逻辑的结论：

1. 我在中国很火！

2. 我之前访问我网站最频繁的人（我妈），她的电脑大概已经被各种中国的间谍软件和恶意软件折腾得不成样子，以至于她在美国的台式机现在都被显示成来自中国的流量。

3. 我的博客主机（Squarespace）最近卖给了私募基金，新老板为了让自尊心脆弱的网站主（比如我）继续留下并付更多钱，正在人为地提高我们的网站流量。

不管实际原因是什么，我现在决定把每篇博客文章都翻译成中文普通话（献给我那些从不留言、也许不一定是人类的忠实读者），以期在我如今最喜欢的国家进一步扩大影响力

-Clayton (拜拜)

2025 11 23

Allison. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

My wife (pictured) does not like this image. Clay (a published photographer) told me it’s his favorite image in my zine.

One of my big recent lessons has been that in practice, an image being good or bad has far less value than I’d previously placed upon it. More important to the work, I’m learning, is the context in which the specific image is placed. Is it alone on a print or in the middle of a book? Is it resting in a blog page with words below it or included in a web portfolio?

My first zine project (Pointing at Stuff 001, available now!) was very much a working lesson in world building and narrative forming. I won’t tell you I’m a master at thees things just yet, but I now feel like I’ve got at least one foot on the foundation and am excited to see where the next step takes me.

-Clayton

2025 11 22

Life finds a way. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

-Clayton

2025 11 21

Our first president. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

-Clayton

2025 11 20

I AM RICH. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

One thing I hadn’t previously considered is that perhaps the owner of this vehicle is named Rich. I think this goes a long way in describing the reality that I spend far too much of my time these days worried about finances.

-Clayton

2025 11 19

Kenneth at See You Soon. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

More images from the zine… my first zine… which is more of a book, depending on who you ask. It is also the name of this website.

-Clayton

2025 11 18

Classic martini. Rainbo, Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

It used to be the martini was a complete turn-off to me. The glassware shape was stupid and the drink wasn’t worth consuming. Of course, as we get older, our perspectives change. You learn, through the years, that most often things are classic for a reason, and it’s not unusual to be wrong about viewpoints you once held firm. Wrong and right is relative, for sure, but there’s no debating the martini is a classic cocktail for good reason.

-Clayton

2025 11 17

Photographing “The Pope.” See You Soon, Chicago, Illinois. October, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

Here’s a lil behind-the-scenes peek during a recent Chicago Magazine cover shoot at the studio.

-Clayton

2025 11 16

Haley & The Rainbo. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

If I’m being honest, my sister is the real reason I’m doing any of this art stuff. She’s always been more thoughtful and knowledgeable about all things art. I feel like a poser, by comparison. I’m working on it, though!

While watching this fantastic (as always) Alec Soth video (below), I both thought of Haley who loves to send and give physical objects while also contemplating how so much of what he says mirrors my own internal dialogue for justifying a career pivot towards photobooks and prints. I’m spending a ton of my time both printing my own work, leaning, and growing, while also now purchasing the work of others to sell in our Realm bookshop. This image is from my first printed zine — check it out! I promise I’ll stop hyping my blog soon, it’s just exciting to have physical work out in the wild and not yet something I’m used to.

-Clayton

2025 11 15

Cat. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

I’ve managed to be relatively okay at keeping plants alive mostly due to one trick I thought up, which I’m quite proud of. The way I remember to water my plants is that the first and the fifteenth are water days. Of course, I don’t always hit the days exactly, but I know that if it’s the beginning or the middle of the month, the plants probably need some water. They’re happy; I’m happy; it’s worked quite well for years now. That said, a few of my plants are now up there in years and clearly in decline. I’m not sure this method is so effective anymore and I likely need to come up with something more appropriate for my elder house plants.

-Clayton

2025 11 14

Blurry glasses. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

-Clayton

2025 11 13

Allison. Chicago, Illinois. December 23, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Have I mentioned I have a zine out now with the same name as this blog? I guess, since this blog didn’t yet exist in the days the images from the blog were made, I should share a few more of the images that are in the book but not yet on the website. Right? Mostly because I am behind on my posts and this seems like a relatively easy way to “catch up.”

-Clayton

PS if interested you can snag the zine here for the low price of twenty dollars!

2025 11 12

Lil Durk’s childhood home. Chicago, Illinois. October, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

While driving around the south side after a photo assignment, my car’s navigation alerted me I was passing Lil Durk’s house. While I was previously engaged with documenting Chicago’s music scene in my younger days, I mostly got out of the scene during the rise of drill, so missed a lot of what Chicago is largely known for these days. I’m not very familiar with Durk, but a quick read of his wiki page is, if anything, fascinting:

On May 31, 2014, Durk's cousin OTF Nunu also known as Nuski was shot and killed.[101] Then, on March 27, 2015, Uchenna "OTF Chino Dolla" Agina, Durk's friend and manager, was also shot dead.[102] On November 6, 2020, Lil Durk's affiliate and fellow rapper King Von was fatally shot outside a nightclub in Atlanta.[103] On June 6, 2021, Durk's brother, Dontay "DThang" Banks Jr, was shot and killed outside of a Chicago nightclub.[104][105]

Chicago has a bad reputation for crime, guns, and murder. Of course these things happen here, but the city is so much bigger and broader than these headlines. That said, reading Durk’s wiki page is a sad reminder of the paths so many of our children take after catching a wave of success through music. So many lives cut down too short. This isn’t something I aim to focus on with my photography, however, it’s also impossible to fully avoid and is a subject worth much closer examination in hopes of finding ways to avoid these violent spirals in future generations.

Summarizing someone’s life through a single sentence on wikipedia does not do him justice, but today Durk sits in prison awaiting trial for murder-for-hire. They took away his key to the city. His childhood home sits, as it has for decades, visibly unaffected by the transcendent highs and brutal lows cast into this world by one child who grew up inside of its walls.

[check out the video below if you want more backstory]

-Clayton