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 19
Not Dead. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
I’m not dead! I’m just busy. Busy with work, mostly (but also a game: see below). It’s strange how when my main gig (commercial photography) is as slow as can be, I’m somehow the busiest I’ve been in years due to other jobs I’m using to fill in my downtime. In reality, I’m working far more hours for far less money, but as a freelancer with home repairs to make, I’ve gotta do something to pay the bills.
In the moments of downtime I have had lately before shaming myself to get back to work, I’ve been enjoying a new game called Subway Builder. It’s been fun to dream about what Chicago would be like if we had a loop line (yes, technically we have The Loop line, but let my imagination cook!). Also, I’ve really been enjoying taking the train more often lately. Hell, I’ve been falling for Chicago in many ways lately. I should write more about that if I can find the time between rolling out new train lines and editing month old photos.
-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 16
A photo representing my brain, lately. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Yes, I’m way behind on posting and now I’m cheating by catching up days later. As per usual lately, I’ve been all over the place and need to cut it out and rediscover my blog focus.
-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 10
The Next Picture Show. Dixon, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
This year, I had an idea for a photo project I really wanted to attempt. Sadly, if never came together mostly due to me not having any time to dedicate to it.
There’s always next year, so they say.
-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 07
House. Dead End. Lake. Ashland, Wisconsin. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
The north is calling me. Next year, I may explore beginning a new photography project up in northern Wisconsin and Michigan. After some brief shooting this year and a previous trip a few years prior, I was reminded by how much I’m drawn to this area. It’s perhaps me getting old. After spending my 20s and 30s mostly heading south to exotic foreign lands, a bit of domestic oddity sounds quite appealing.
-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 10 02
Haley & Buddy. Dixon, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Here’s a recent favorite snap. Definitely need to get back into the habit of sharing images of people and a bit less images of trash on the sidewalk and busted cars. We’ll get there. I can never fully quit the busted cars, though. Excited to get back out to the farm maybe this weekend! I’ve got tons more images from there, as well…
-Clayton
2025 10 01
Night moon. Where’s your focus? Douglas, Michigan. October, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
The Anecdotal Evidence That Keeps Me Up At Night
by Clayton Hauck
The thing is, I’ve been a commercial photographer for over a decade now. Close to 100% of my working time and energies were put towards this profession, weird as it can be. When things were good, they were very good. And when things were bad, well, they were still relatively okay. I was able to make a respectable living doing this work and had close to zero complaints about the deal. It’s still kind of hard to believe I bought a house through making photos.
As I sit in my photo studio today, things are about as different as can be from the pleasant picture I’ve just laid out. Even the studio I now run was opened more as a compliment to my existing commercial photography business. While the reasons are plentiful, I’ll soon get to the specific one I thought of this morning while cleaning up the studio. But first a bit more detail on where my focus is now: yes, I’m still a commercial photographer but my focus is far more split both within the profession and outside of it. I’m now directing and shooting video, and putting a lot more effort towards the art photography world (perhaps teaching is in my future, as well). This has been wildly motivating for me, which is nice, but I’m still super level-headed about the realities of making a decent living through this line of work. Secondly, the studio that I opened without much thought to profitability is now being handled entirely differently. Making this place make money is priority number one, and if I can’t make that happen, it will have to go. Thirdly, I’m now running a photobook shop called realmbooks.co. Much like my newfound artistic photography practice, this side hustle has given me a lot of excitement and motivation, however, I’m equally as level-headed about its chances at producing a living wage for myself. What makes me feel better about this difficult financial reality is that it’s very complimentary to my photography work, and in many ways I feel like I’m back at school learning a ton of new things (without the baggage of student loans).
All this to say: my life is wildly different now than it was even a few years ago. My time is being spread very thin amongst all of these new practices and I have very little downtime to relax and socialize. Fortunately, much of the work is work that is often enjoyable. This helps me justify things.
So why the need to put myself into this situation, you may ask. Here’s the anecdotal story as told from my perspective as a photo studio operator:
Last year we had a client do a shoot in our space. It was all more or less normal aside from my own observation that the photographer was being wildly over-worked for what they were likely being paid. It was a relentless shot list (this is not unusual. Most of my shoots are also this way), but they didn’t have the budget for an appropriate support crew, so I got the sense everyone was miserable. This was the first warning. It’s increasingly hard for Clayton the commercial photographer to compete with the countless productions being run on a far lower budget than I will ever be able to compete with. It is what it is and I don’t take this personally, as I was once the young and scrappy photographer doing things for far less than the established photographers would ever think to do them for.
Fast forward a year and this same client pops back onto my radar asking for studio availability to do a photo shoot last minute. Cool! The space is available and I could very much use the rental income. A few days go by and word comes they decided against the shoot altogether. Fine, it happens. But the reason they decided against it is the thing that has me scrambling to find a half dozen new jobs — they’re just going to run the images they made internally using ai.
Some of us don’t think it’s coming. Some of us are scared shitless. Nobody yet knows how this will all play out, but my previous cautious optimism has cooled quite dramatically. Now, my current base-case thinking is that nearly all jobs linked to the creation of visual images for commercial use (be it stills, video, animation, etc, etc) will either be gone completely — outsourced to ai — or vastly diluted from a price-leverage perspective within just a few short years.
If anyone wants to rent my studio for a birthday party, wedding, baby shower, or hell maybe even an old-fashioned photo shoot you know where to find me!
-Clayton