2024 12 20
Photography isn’t art. It’s too easy to make a photo. There’s no skill involved, therefore no artistic value.
I disagree with this, of course, however completely understand and agree with the logic behind it. Seeing photography as art will never be something everyone can do, I don’t think. Anyone can make a good photo (good is relative in any art form, of course). Anyone can also make a good painting (good to someone, at least!), even if they’ve never painted once in their life, but the “barrier to entry” is far more difficult. To make a photo, you just take the phone of our your pocket and push a button. To make a paining, you’ll at least need to find a store that sells the necessary supplies, or place an order on Amazon and wait a few days.
In my younger years as a photographer, I would often scoff at fine art photography, mostly because I didn’t understand the thought process or put in the time necessary to understand what the photographers were trying to do or say. I’d see them using a giant large format film camera to make some images I often found boring and label the whole process unnecessary and self important. Sure, I still dislike plenty of photography that is overwhelmingly embraced by the more formal art world, however, I do now have a far larger appreciation for, and valuing of, photographic art that is challenging to make. Using 4x5 film instead of a 100mp digital medium format camera, for example, should earn you some respect, even though at the end of the day it’s the work (and the person doing the work, but that’s another topic for another day) that most matters.
Yesterday, this video popped into my feed which I found fascinating in many ways. While the clickbait headline is off topic for this blog post, his sentiment at the end is spot on. The guy makes a technologically-impressive camera that produces terrible images, however, the process is what makes the images incredible, and therefore, in his opinion, art.
“I know this thing makes worse pictures than a camera that costs $2… but when I use this thing, I fee like I’m making actual art, which I do not feel when I’m using a digital camera.”
As always, art is in the eye of the beholder, but it is also made in the decisions of the person making the art.
That toilet image would be much better art if I made it on 4x5 film instead of a film-emulating smartphone camera.
-Clayton
Channelling Duchamp. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Photography isn’t art. It’s too easy to make a photo. There’s no skill involved, therefore no artistic value.
I disagree with this, of course, however completely understand and agree with the logic behind it. Seeing photography as art will never be something everyone can do, I don’t think. Anyone can make a good photo (good is relative in any art form, of course). Anyone can also make a good painting (good to someone, at least!), even if they’ve never painted once in their life, but the “barrier to entry” is far more difficult. To make a photo, you just take the phone of our your pocket and push a button. To make a painting, you’ll at least need to find a store that sells the necessary supplies, or place an order on Amazon and wait a few days.
In my younger years as a photographer, I would often scoff at fine art photography, mostly because I didn’t understand the thought process or put in the time necessary to understand what the photographers were trying to do or say. I’d see them using a giant large format film camera to make some images I often found boring and label the whole process unnecessary and self important. Sure, I still dislike plenty of photography that is overwhelmingly embraced by the more formal art world, however, I do now have a far larger appreciation for, and valuing of, photographic art that is challenging to make. Using 4x5 film instead of a 100mp digital medium format camera, for example, should earn you some respect, even though at the end of the day it’s the work (and the person doing the work, but that’s another topic for another day) that most matters.
Yesterday, this video popped into my feed which I found fascinating in many ways. While the clickbait headline is off topic for this blog post, his sentiment at the end is spot on. The guy makes a technologically-impressive camera that produces terrible images, however, the process is what makes the images incredible, and therefore, in his opinion, art.
“I know this thing makes worse pictures than a camera that costs $2… but when I use this thing, I fee like I’m making actual art, which I do not feel when I’m using a digital camera.”
As always, art is in the eye of the beholder, but it is also made in the decisions of the person making the art.
That toilet image would be much better art if I made it on 4x5 film instead of a film-emulating smartphone camera.
-Clayton
2024 08 24
I’ve been busy lately. A bit too busy to keep up all my side projects, like this here blog. I’m noticing that lately I’m writing more and more about me. Why I’m doing this or thinking that. While I guess this is fine, it wasn’t the main intention of the project. Becoming a better writer was a core objective, so I guess if writing about myself is what helps me do that—fine.
Yesterday, we got word that we didn’t book a large project that my intuition had me feeling good about. At first, my intuition said we weren’t really in the mix, but if I wrote a really good treatment, it might make us a contender. Sure enough, the writing nearly put us over the finish live, though we ultimately came up a bit short. It’s a weird profession, commercial photography, filled with lots of politics and intangibles, but I kind of like that about it. At the end of the day, to me, the photos are what matters. But in life, it’s often more about how you get to where you’re going than anything else.
I have enough going on, like getting married in a few weeks and blogging daily, to fill my time. Filling my bank account is the part that I’ll miss about this one, though the project would’ve been a challenging one, which I think I would’ve excelled at, so ultimately a rewarding one as well.
Jumping to my next train of thought I had this morning: the challenges of becoming an aging photographer. While I do think I’m being awarded fewer jobs in part because I’m not as young as I used to be, the struggle is more internal, for me. Increasingly, I’m getting the sense that I need to find something different to dedicate the remainder of my productive life to, because photography (at least how I practice it) is physically demanding and my body will eventually call it a wrap. Because of this, I’ve been more attracted to the ideas of bar ownership (probably also physically demanding, how I would approach it) or writing (let’s be honest, not super realistic in terms of making a living—have you seen this blog?!). The obvious solution, however, has been sitting right in front of me all along: motion directing.
This morning, I’m departing for Maryland (really, I should be packing right now, not blogging) to take part in a tourism production next week. I’m driving, because I’m a proper Midwesterner (and have a car full of gear), so I’ll have a lot of time to stew on this idea of what I probably should be focusing my time and attention on. Video is what got me into this line of work in the beginning. I’d always wanted to direct and make movies, yet I’ve spent the last two decades avoiding video production as much as I possibly can! Figuring out what is at the core of this Resistance (imposter syndrome, laziness, social anxiety) will help free me to gain some newfound career freedom for my next two decades on this journey called life.
Final takeaway from this morning: I need to be more funny. Nobody, aside from perhaps my mom, has the interest in hearing me drone on about myself for this long! Yeah, I’m doing this here blog solely for me, but I can at least make it a bit more entertaining. Now, I gotta go pack!
-Clayton
Living the high life. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I’ve been busy lately. A bit too busy to keep up all my side projects, like this here blog. I’m noticing that lately I’m writing more and more about me. Why I’m doing this or thinking that. While I guess this is fine, it wasn’t the main intention of the project. Becoming a better writer was a core objective, so I guess if writing about myself is what helps me do that—fine.
Yesterday, we got word that we didn’t book a large project that my intuition had me feeling good about. At first, my intuition said we weren’t really in the mix, but if I wrote a really good treatment, it might make us a contender. Sure enough, the writing nearly put us over the finish live, though we ultimately came up a bit short. It’s a weird profession, commercial photography, filled with lots of politics and intangibles, but I kind of like that about it. At the end of the day, to me, the photos are what matters. But in life, it’s often more about how you get to where you’re going than anything else.
I have enough going on, like getting married in a few weeks and blogging daily, to fill my time. Filling my bank account is the part that I’ll miss about this one, though the project would’ve been a challenging one, which I think I would’ve excelled at, so ultimately a rewarding one as well.
Jumping to my next train of thought I had this morning: the challenges of becoming an aging photographer. While I do think I’m being awarded fewer jobs in part because I’m not as young as I used to be, the struggle is more internal, for me. Increasingly, I’m getting the sense that I need to find something different to dedicate the remainder of my productive life to, because photography (at least how I practice it) is physically demanding and my body will eventually call it a wrap. Because of this, I’ve been more attracted to the ideas of bar ownership (probably also physically demanding, how I would approach it) or writing (let’s be honest, not super realistic in terms of making a living—have you seen this blog?!). The obvious solution, however, has been sitting right in front of me all along: motion directing.
This morning, I’m departing for Maryland (really, I should be packing right now, not blogging) to take part in a tourism production next week. I’m driving, because I’m a proper Midwesterner (and have a car full of gear), so I’ll have a lot of time to stew on this idea of what I probably should be focusing my time and attention on. Video is what got me into this line of work in the beginning. I’d always wanted to direct and make movies, yet I’ve spent the last two decades avoiding video production as much as I possibly can! Figuring out what is at the core of this Resistance (imposter syndrome, laziness, social anxiety) will help free me to gain some newfound career freedom for my next two decades on this journey called life.
Final takeaway from this morning: I need to be more funny. Nobody, aside from perhaps my mom, has the interest in hearing me drone on about myself for this long! Yeah, I’m doing this here blog solely for me, but I can at least make it a bit more entertaining. Now, I gotta go pack!
-Clayton
2024 04 14
It’s smart to take a nice long look at yourself in the mirror every once in a while, America.
More on this another day, maybe.
-Clayton
Mirror, mirror, on the wall. Chicago, Illinois. October, 2023. © Clayton Hauck
It’s smart to take a nice long look at yourself in the mirror every once in a while, America.
More on this another day, maybe.
-Clayton