2024 04 19

Neighborhood construction scene image made on film; my first roll in at least a decade! Contax T2 Kodak Gold. Chicago, Illinois. March, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

“It’s not my job to create meaning, but to charge the air so that meaning can occur.”

Todd Hido is a smart guy, in addition to being a great photographer. Per my rule of writing about any youtube video I appreciate, below is a new Willem Verbeeck video that covers a lot of ground and is very much worth your time if you at all enjoy photography.

Todd has been someone I repeatedly turn to via various internet videos to distill info and wisdom about how the world of fine art photography works, as I contemplate a potential future book project or two of my own. While gathering enough ego and energy to take on a book project is rather daunting, one of Hido’s observations in the video is that photobooks have evolved into (he argues) the best way to discover new photographers these days. It used to be you’d put in your time and maybe one day a publisher would decide you are worthy of investment into a book, however, these days anyone can make a book relatively affordably. All that said, getting anyone to buy it is another can of worms entirely.

On the topic of Todd Hido and photobooks, I just purchased his Intimate Distance book at the aperture booth at Expo and am excited to dig into it. If anyone reading this wants to stop by my studio sometime and discuss photobooks, hit me up! Working on making the first photobook club meetup a reality and it’d be cool if it was more than myself talking into a mirror about how inspiring Some Say Ice is to me.

Another fitting takeaway from the video: How long does it take to make a project of photographs? “Longer than you think. And it’s important to let things steep for a while,” says Hido, which is proving to be a completely accurate assessment.

-Clayton