2025 12 14

Eat up, while you can! Way Out, Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

I’m well on my way to Photography Retirement. Why, you might ask? Well, a quick update to The China Situation:

Website traffic to this here blog originating from China is now up to 50%, 70%, 83%, 85% (!!!). As previously discussed (See: 2025 11 07; 2025 11 24, 2025 12 11), once we hit 100% I will officially retire as a photographer and switch my career to moving carts at Costco. A quick search of why so many of the visits are coming from China will tell you it’s most likely due to bots training ai models. My consistent, daily flow of Top Notch imagery is essentially training my replacement.

Have a nice day!

-Clayton 嗨，未来的女朋友，这就是我说话的声音

2025 12 13

Night sky over Bloomington, Indiana. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

This is one of the images I printed and gave away as a gift to those who pre-ordered my zine. I’ve still got zines available to anyone who wants to pick one up! They are only twenty bucks and packed full of pictures from this here blog. Now that I’m working on the second installment, I’m both filled with excitement for yet another print project and dread of becoming a photographer who makes more than he sells. This is not to say the first zine did poorly, but financially-speaking it’s about at the break-even mark. The money stuff unfortunately matters, but it’s the creative outlet and possibilities that has me motivated and excited to make more personal work these days.

-Clayton

2025 12 12

Nathan at Lobo. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

What happens when you mix two of my favorite artists, photographer Daniel Arnold and musician Bill Callahan? This video is what happens. And it’s the magic I’d expect it to be.

-Clayton

2025 12 11

Visitor parking; spaces open! Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

Another update on the “China Situation,” as I will now refer to it. If unfamiliar, please see: 2025 11 07; 2025 11 24

The trend remains! An even higher percentage of this here blog’s traffic is now originating in China (or my mom’s infected computer). Up from a previous high of 70%, China now accounts for over 83% (!) of all visitors. At this pace, by the end of the year we suspect nine of every ten visitors to be Chinese (bots). By early next year, the figure might be at 100% or even 110%, assuming they’ve figured out how to mathematically make this possible.

My new theory is that the bots are infiltrating every detail of this blog in an effort to (finally) get me to sign up for a TikTok account. It won’t work.

Instead, I think once the 100% threshold is inevitably reached, I will sell all of my photography equipment and get that juicy $80k/year salary job pushing carts at Costco that I’ve been dreaming about. While the Costco parking lot is perhaps my most dreaded place on Earth, I welcome the new life challenge.

-Clayton 卡哇邦嘎

2025 12 10

Dave wearing the Shame Hat. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

As I’ve mentioned previously, I very much feel like I’m back in school these days with my work doing Realm Books. It has brought me a nonstop constant supply of images to digest and consume. While I think it’s important to maintain a healthy balance of creating vs consuming, both are important to the process. Through the years I’ve been guilty of leaning too heavily into one or the other — either spending all my time making work and thinking I know best or making no work and feeling like I’m incapable of doing so at the level of quality I strive for. These days I’m actively working on finding and maintaining the balance between creating and consuming.

Always a fan of Bryan’s videos, this one today is well worth a watch just to give you some sparks of inspiration. It definitely did for me, at least.

-Clayton

2025 12 09

Brian enjoys a wedding. Bloomington, Indiana. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

-Clayton

2025 12 08

House in winter. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

-Clayton

2025 12 07

A fresh start (after a horrific incident). Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

My life, lately, feels like this patch of earth. Previous structures I spent years building up have largely crumbled and been replaced with new concepts and ideas, which I am now building up from the cleared rubble of my previous endeavors. I was thinking on my walk to the studio this morning about how things are the hardest they’ve been in my entire adult life, yet I’m probably the happiest I’ve been in my entire adult life. This may sound strange, and I haven’t fully analyzed why this is the case (been too busy for that!), but in the coming weeks I hope to spend more time pondering and writing about this reality (been neglecting this here blog lately). My gut take is that I’m content when I’m working on challenging tasks that I enjoy, and less time stewing on things I can’t control (news, geopolitics, weather).

-Clayton

2025 12 06

Man fixes fence? Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Ever since I started photographing things, I’ve been attracted to strange and absurd moments such as this one, spotted out my studio fire escape. Rather hilariously, this entire fence blew over in a storm about a week later. I bring up this image today not as a way to compare myself to him, but the sentiment behind his work, which was always one I was drawn to and considered one of my biggest early inspirations. Martin Parr passed away today, a sad day for the photography community as a whole.

While I don’t have anything profound to add to that conversation, I will instead use this as a moment to turn inward towards myself. Regrets in my career have been a lack of focus on these moments that drew me to put a camera in my hand in the first place; a lack of keeping up on names like Martin Parr who inspired me to make this hobby my career; a lack of continuing to make these wacky snapshots for many years while distracted making better money on commercial projects.

Anyway, onward and upward. Grateful to still be here doing this hobby-as-job for whatever time I have!

-Clayton

PS - here’s a nice chat with Martin on Ben Smith’s Small Voice podcast

2025 12 05

Boot for you, boot for me. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

This city will get its finances in order one way or another, eventually, maybe.

-Clayton

2025 12 04

Roo the Dog. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Am I actually a dog person? Having only had cats my entire adult life, we finally have a dog in the house. It’s been a bit of a learning curve, for sure, but I like the added structure the lil guy brings to my life. Cats, on the other hand, play in to your wily tendencies and accentuate your outcast persona. With a dog, I feel like a proper member of society! Even while wiping shit off the ground. In fact, likely because of it.

-Clayton

2025 12 03

Attempting to hold back nature. Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

Here’s a blurb I wrote for Cengiz Yar’s newsletter about my favorite photobook of the year:

While perhaps not as easily digestible as Daniel Arnold’s You Are What You Do (Loose Joints), my close runner-up for photobook of the year, Zed Nelson’s The Anthropocene Illusion (Guest Editions) is one of those projects that comes along and transcends the genre of mere photobook to become something far more significant. In our modern world of *gestures broadly*, this book does more to communicate where we’re at as a species than perhaps any work of art I’ve yet encountered. They say a picture is worth a thousand words, yet photography continues to be such an underrated form of art. This title shows what’s possible when you harness those unsaid words within its pages, filling it with such rich and complex meaning and narrative, while simultaneously being beautiful to look at. Because of this I can’t help but consider it my favorite of the year for what it’s able to communicate. Of course, not everyone will see it this way. That, too, explains how we’ve ended up where we are. *gestures broadly*

Favorite: Zed Nelson’s The Anthropocene Illusion (Guest Editions)

Runners-Up: Daniel Arnold’s You Are What You Do (Loose Joints), Jake Knapp’s Trump, Colorado (Constituent)

-Clayton

2025 12 02

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

So what jobs are we all getting next?

My youtube obsession continues, with the video below hitting my feed as I was updating the bookshop inventory. I know almost nothing about tattoos, don’t have any myself, and likely never will. That said, I found this video wildly fascinating and informative. Realistically, there are many parallels to my own photography industry. The job market of the future continues to terrify me. Anyway, back to work.

-Clayton

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