Clayton Hauck 10/21/25 Clayton Hauck 10/21/25

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

Clayton Hauck 10/3/25 Clayton Hauck 10/3/25

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

Clayton Hauck 9/13/25 Clayton Hauck 9/13/25

2025 09 13

I have a friend who is having weird thoughts. I’m beginning to get concerned. He wants to be an artist, he says. He’s doing all sorts of things that don’t make any logical sense. He wiped his social media clear of all normal photos. No selfies, no family, no friends. People are calling him, asking him what’s the meaning of all this. To this, he calmly explains himself, but this only gets the people even more riled up and angry. I think a wellness check is in order. Maybe he’s got a couple screws loose. I think I need to distance myself from him; to claim I never met the fella.

-Clayton

Clayton Hauck 9/4/25 Clayton Hauck 9/4/25

2025 09 02

*RIP Don’t Fret. Chicago, Illinois. July, 2025. © Clayton Hauck*

Have I mentioned I run a photobook shop now? www.realmbooks.co

I’m busy adding a dozen or more new titles to the website over the next few days. Check it out, and buy a book maybe?! All the money we make on books, for the foreseeable future, goes to purchasing more books. It’s just smart business. See you on Shark Tank!

-Clayton

Clayton Hauck 8/18/25 Clayton Hauck 8/18/25

2025 08 18

*Fancy frog artwork of* *Ellie Pritts. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck*

As I continue to be couch-ridden as my body rids itself of this year’s Covid variety, my intake of random youtube videos remains steady. This video (below) popped into my feed likely due to the camera tech review, which I could care less about, but I’m glad it did! Yes, the technology is remarkable. I’ve been itching to play with a probe lens for years now (second in excitement only to my urge to shoot anamorphic lenses). While these things get me excited, they are also telling (to me). The simple fact that I have not made the effort to make it happen, to shoot some videos with probes and squished video, tells me that my level of passion isn’t quite there (compared to still photography). This is not to say things may change, but after some recent efforts to get back into shooting motion again, it’s the editing step that is a roadblock for me. My brain and my body resisting at all costs because it knows. It has been there before. Trapped in a room all hours of the day, as days stretch into weeks and time passes without your participation in it.

The other takeaway was less personal and more from a broad industry-perspective. The tools available now to even the casual shooter are remarkable. This trend will only continue, further eroding the previously-huge advantage high-end photo and video makers once had. It used to be wildly difficult and even more expensive to produce the level of quality casual youtube kids are now dropping weekly. With that, of course, comes the further reduction in rates being paid to execute this work for the people who want it made (which is also increasingly less as ad spend dollars move more and more to social media native content).

All that said, check out the video they put together with this cool tech! It’s really impressive, even with the faux-Attenborough VO (which also enforces my sentiments, I think).

-Clayton

Clayton Hauck 6/2/25 Clayton Hauck 6/2/25

2025 06 01

*Don’t Fret art. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2025. © Clayton Hauck*

While Don’t Fret is no longer with us, he will live on, through his art and through his spirit, for some time.

We were in early production on a documentary about his life. While this project has been derailed, it will eventually be turned into something worthwhile. More on this another day. More on all of this, in fact, another day, as I surely have quite a lot more thoughts to share once I both find the time to share them and fully process the realities.

Until then, don’t fret.

-Clayton

PS- thank you to all who attended and helped plan the lovely memorial service

Clayton Hauck 4/18/25 Clayton Hauck 4/18/25

2025 04 18

*Note from a vaguely anonymous artist. Dont Fret. Home Away From Home, Chicago, Illinois. February, 2025. © Clayton Hauck*

We lost a real one today. More thoughts another day, as I have yet to fully process the stark reality.

Today, we fret.

-Clayton

Clayton Hauck 1/30/25 Clayton Hauck 1/30/25

2025 01 30

I EXIST!

I used to joke that street tags could all be translated to “I exist!”

These days, we’re all steeet tagging digitally through the social apps we used, being forced to constantly remind the world we exist in a desperate plea to please the almighty algorithm and gain a sliver on traction in the attention economy we live in. It’s exhausting.

I walk this stretch often and watched the artist spend days painting this mural. Then the tags go up in an instance, crowding out any detail and nuance. Tagging is very much an art form fit for our time. Do we really exist if nobody sees your post on socials or name sprayed on a side street wall?

-Clayton

I EXIST!

I used to joke that street tags could all be translated to “I exist!”

These days, we’re all street tagging digitally through the social apps we use, being forced to constantly remind the world we exist in a desperate plea to please the almighty algorithm and gain a sliver on traction in the attention economy we live in. It’s exhausting.

I walk this stretch often and watched the artist spend days painting this mural. Then the tags go up in an instance, crowding out any detail and nuance. Tagging is very much an art form fit for our time. Do we really exist if nobody sees our post on social or name sprayed on a side street wall? Maybe not, after all.

Like, comment, subscribe, and come back tomorrow for more gem takes like this.

-Clayton

Clayton Hauck 1/27/25 Clayton Hauck 1/27/25

2025 01 27

I’ve been printing a ton lately! Above are sixteen of my own images that I am offering for sale, reasonably-priced, to anyone looking to add a little joy to their walls. You can check out the whole series and place an order if so inclined here! These prints were all made by myself, using high quality paper and archival ink, in my secret print shop at the studio, for a show that just wrapped up in the lobby of my studio’s building (the Kimball Arts Center). While I have been printing a lot, I haven’t been selling nearly as much. It’s a goal this year to get better about selling (or giving away!) what I print before continuing to stockpile what I’ve already made. Everything is a process. One step at a time.

I’m also currently working on a large print order (not my images) which paid enough for me to buy a bunch of new paper that I plan to use making zines and more postcards. None of this is really making me money (yet?), but it’s been a fun new hobby and I can see myself doing lots more printing in the coming years, perhaps even making it more of a focus of my photography practice in one way or another (no shortage of ideas!).

So yeah, if you’re a local photographer looking to print some of your work, reach out! Or, check out the website I put together to sell my own prints and pass me your email to be entered to win a free future print drop. I’d love to keep releasing new images but I need to discontinue or sell out a few of the previous releases first!

-Clayton

Pointing at Stuff by clayton hauck