2025 06 10

A glance back in time. Pontiac, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I was sent this video (below) and told to watch it, after seeing it pop into my feed and deciding not to (I follow Smarter Every Day but am trying my best to cut down on my youtube time lately). I’m glad it did seep into my brain (thanks Dave!). Honestly, the video resonates with me in so many ways I’m not even sure where to begin. Instead, I will only suggest you give it a watch yourself and see what you take away from it (it’s entertaining, too!).

The one thing I will relate it to here is my ongoing “Ill Wandering” photo project. While out exploring the state, I encounter so many places that clearly feel lost to time. This idea that America has declined, or at the very least changed beyond recognition, is real for so many people. I won’t even begin to get into the complexities here, but will say it’s something I spend a lot of time pondering and hopefully even more time documenting in the months and years ahead.

Oh! Also, I will be showing a few images from the series, for the first time ever, on June 20th during a photography show at my studio… just need to figure out which ones, which is always the hard part for me.

-Clayton

2025 05 19

Midewin Tallgrass Prairie, Wilmington, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

A former wartime bunker in a former tallgrass prairie which is being redeveloped back into a tallgrass prairie.

-Clayton

2025 05 18

Joliet, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Nature attempts to foil man’s attempt at sanctuary. Don’t forget to pay the landscaping invoice.

-Clayton

2025 05 17

Rust belt remnants. Joliet, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This used to be an iron mill. Now it’s a pile of rubble, but there’s a park alongside of it, so we’ll call it a win.

-Clayton

2025 05 13

Emily, keeping it 100 at See You Soon, Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Previously, I wrote about the origin of this “Keep it 100” portrait setup I’ve been doing, along with some of the challenges I faced. (See: 2025 03 24)

This will be a short update, of sorts. In the spirit of transparency (I like when people work through challenges publicly via social media and whatnot — even if, in reality, it’s more done as a marketing ploy), I thought it might be beneficial to some to see some actual numbers. In reality, it will mostly be beneficial to myself, as I struggle to figure out how financially viable it is to offer one-hundred unique portraits for one-hundred and fifty dollars.

Someone on Threads posted asking how people make a living from being portrait photographers. The one-word answer that came to mind, for me, was: hustle. That really kind of sums it all up. Finding willing participants is no easy task. Convincing people to come to you, money in hand, is hard. What keeps me going is the huge amount of very appreciative feedback I am getting from the sessions. Lots of people who otherwise hate getting their photo taken are really enjoying the process. Of course, there are endless intangibles that go into all of this beyond raw numbers, and at the end of the day, it’s myself and my decades of experience which is the real value.

February 2025: (19 sessions) $3,250 bookings; $625 tips & add-ons. $3,875 total over 9 days = $430/day.

Not terrible at a glance, and perhaps a sustainable way to make a career as a photographer, especially if you can keep your expenses down. In reality, the only way I’m able to do this setup is because I am pulling from gear accumulated over a decade by three different photographers. The upfront cost, wear & tear on the camera, and all of my time makes it hard to pin an exact number on what all of this costs, but if you were to go and rent all the necessary gear for the nine days, you’d likely spend over 100% of revenue on rentals alone.

Then, factor in the space needed to make it all work, and now we’re losing even more money. Not a sustainable business model.

My ideal, best case scenario for this specific setup is not to raise prices, but to figure out creative ways to make it make sense. I’ve been considering things like: making the entire setup go towards charity (not possible in my current financial situation); making a portion of each session go to charity; partnering with nonprofits and allowing participants to donate any number they deem appropriate; trying out a pay-what-you-want model.

What I’m trying to communicate is that the price of this offering is artificially low and should not be interpreted as what you might expect to get when you hand a photographer $150 in exchange for portraits. I’ve been trying to do things like asking for additional tips, high resolution, and/or retouched files in exchange for more money, in hopes that people might help “subsidize” the low price for others. Now, I have an entire new website (everyoneisfamous.com) dedicated to both showing the work and gaining more attention to the offering. Since launching, I’ve done one run of portraits, resulting in:

April 2025: (16 sessions) $2,500 bookings; $535 tips & add-ons. $3,035 over 7 days = $433/day.

One month is not a trend, but I will be interested in seeing if I can get the daily revenue number to at least double. Realistically, that’s the only way to make the setup start to make financial sense. This entire project is very much a time-consuming personal side project. Sure, a bit of extra money is nice, but in a way it’s likely doing more harm than good, considering I make my living as a commercial photographer with a perceived (and real!) value that is welllllll beyond “guy doing $150 headshots”. But I don’t care. I enjoy doing this and think there is some kind of longer-term solution that will make it make more sense/cents, both figuratively and literally.

On that note, I’m now booking sessions May 19-24! Tell yours friends! And tip! Or don’t, whatever.

-Clayton

PS - Emily bought one of my prints when she came by for portraits as well. Thanks Emily and shoutout intangible value

2025 05 07

A storm is a-brewin’. Olney, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

I wrote a thing about an annoying work situation but feel like I can’t talk about that publicly, even without naming names, because it will get into the ears of the people I was writing about and nothing good will come of it. What I will say, however, is that the photography gods are doing their best at keeping me away from commercial photography sets these days. Portraits is what I do now. That, and Illinois Wandering. Oh, I’m also really excited about some video ideas I have. Perhaps losing bids is a good thing, after all.

-Clayton

2024 04 27

Somewhere near Thawville, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Overheard today outside of a bookshop in Spring Green, Wisconsin: “If we’re lucky, they’ll put us in the same concentration camp!”

Dark humor to get through dark times.

-Clayton

2025 04 12

Main Street on Chatsworth, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Another town without people, full of beauty.

-Clayton

2024 04 01

Birds on the line, tweeting or something. Somewhere in northern Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

After watching a few more episodes of the video I mentioned yesterday, it’s remarkable how efficiently word travels these days through social media. Ed was lining up free places to stay, free pints of beer, clothing, meals, while his poor old kayak buddy was left to fend for himself, without social media on his side. There’s some sort of lesson in there but I’m not exactly sure what it is.

-Clayton

2025 03 31

Illinois and Michigan Canal. Lockport, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s the final day of March, so we’re roughly a quarter of the way through the year already, which is quite wild. That news has me in rather poor spirits as, while I’ve been keeping myself very busy with my own endless list of projects, the meat and potatoes work that pays the bills has been slow and I’ve yet to win a proper large commercial production. This in itself is not out of the ordinary, however, I’m extra sensitive these days with the studio overhead piling every higher and the growing sense of an economic slowdown on the horizon.

The industry talk I lead last week was both remarkably reassuring to hear such kind words and compliments towards my photography, and terrifying in that most everyone else is dealing with today’s challenging economic realities. Ho hum.

On a brighter note, I stumbled upon the video below and it gave me a much-needed spark of joy. I love the weird journeys us humans become obsessed with and this is both entertaining and educational. My brain always wonders about and imagines what grand rivers are like at their place of origin and this video thoroughly explores the River Thames in all of its glory, which is cool.

As I find myself pivoting back towards becoming an artist and personality that relies on my own vision and content to survive, starting that long-pondered youtube channel really seems like it will be in my near future.

-Clayton

2025 03 17

Somewhere in northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Back from a gig down in St Louis and a few days of Ill Wandering (lots of time on the road — need to prioritize less driving next time) and I’m catching up on life, getting back into the routine of things. This week, I aim to make my new website go live. More on that soon. I’m also preparing for a talk going down in two weeks time in which myself and fellow photographer/friend Jason Little will discuss how we use personal work in our practice. I feel like lately all I do is personal work, so I should have much to discuss. I’ll aim to make it worthwhile for both those in attendance and myself.

-Clayton

PS - on the topic of photography, this video by Noah Kalina hit my feed today and I really enjoyed it. Give it a watch, if interested.

2025 03 16

Farm outside Ashkum, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

When I began my Illinois Project (photographing the state outside of Chicago), I was smitten by scenes like this. I still find this image beautiful, but a year later, I now realize a big part of what drew me towards these images was my lack of prior experience with them. Now that I have folders full of them, the charm sort of wears off a bit and you start to understand nobody has the patience to look at more than one of these photos, if even that. Maybe I’m wrong?

I’ve continued making these photos and will revisit them in time. Peeking back at this image now, made roughly a year ago, gives me the thought that maybe there is more charm in the simplicity than I’d previously thought.

One other result from my recent foray into capturing rural Illinois is that I now completely love bare trees, where previously my brain would almost totally ignore them. Nature’s fireworks, I like to think. Only they happen at such a slow pace that most humans will never comprehend their beauty.

-Clayton

2025 03 15

Freight train rolls through Ashkum, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

One thing that draws me to rural Illinois is the trains. I dream of living the life of a hobo and creating a large body of work from that perspective, but know I don’t have it in me to do so. The idea of living a far less comfortable lifestyle in pursuit of art is one that fascinates me, but I’ve grown too reliant on air conditioning and Amazon next day delivery.

Also, I need to photograph things out of focus more often…

-Clayton

2025 03 14

Pizza Palace. Ashkum, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This photo is a visual representation of the Midwesterner’s saying “I’m living the dream.”

-Clayton

2025 03 13

North of Champaign, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

The big takeaway I had last year after my various Illinois Wandering sessions (which were admittedly not very focused and more of an afterthought) was that, while I was making some okay photos of cool scenes, none of the images really stood out as being strong enough to stand on their own. Sure, this image is beautiful (imo) and might work well in a series with other images providing meaning and backstory, but I’d been hoping to make work that would really stand out and be something I would be proud to show others. In reality, I was getting images that felt too pulled back and observational, like a tourist making snaps on the family vacation. I needed to be a part of the action. The images need to feel purposeful, powerful, and spark emotion. This shot is on the right track; it was made as a storm rolled over the plains, powerful to experience firsthand while being there in person, but a subject (a person, ideally) could’ve made it really stand on its own two feet as a strong image.

That’s the trouble with wandering around a rural state alone in your car — the amount of humans you encounter is remarkably small. I continually think of two possible solutions as I’m out on my own: The Crewdson Approach or the Soth Approach.

The obvious solution for a commercial photographer like myself, if wanting to make the strongest images possible, is to produce them like Crewdson does! Put a bunch of money into solving the problem. Get a van, fill it with people and props and a pre-planned road map and go make it happen. The challenge with this approach is that it’s not what drove me to explore my state in the first place. The resulting images may be “better” but any of the meaning I hope to create will be lost.

While it’s ultimately a far more challenging and time consuming approach, the honest, photojournalistic mentality is what’s been driving me to do this. I continually get the feeling while out exploring that I am in a place forgotten by the rest of the world, its time long passed. It’s wanting to document that feeling and emotion for a future audience that drives me to push through and continue exploring this approach to the work, while knowing full-well the strength of the images might suffer and the fine art galleries of New York City may never call.

My cast of characters should be the people who live and work in these places that I encounter, who understand and are at home in them. Pushing myself to get out of my comfort zone in order to access these photographic opportunities is the part that will be most challenging, but I am taking steps in that direction and so far it feels good.

-Clayton

2025 03 12

Somewhere in northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Everyone likes looking at photos of rural farmland, right??? Right?!

-Clayton

2025 03 11

Somewhere in Northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Catching up on posts as I’ve been on the road and didn’t have time to make them as I was busy shooting and wandering. It’s interesting looking back at these images from last March as I’ve made quite a lot of progress and changes to how I want to approach this project moving forward. More on that later!

-Clayton

2025 03 10

Somewhere in northern Illinois. March, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This week I’ll be doing some Ill Wandering while traveling to and from an assignment down in St Louis. I don’t have much planned out, but am excited to explore and document regions further south in the state. In additional to making photos, the goal is to also do some video and short interviews with strangers as well. This is part of yet another project I am working on, which I will talk more about soon.

-Clayton

2025 01 29

Man walks through park with dog. Champagne, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Here’s an example of an image which I like, but in reality is probably not a great image. It’s missing something that makes is special, yet has elements which make it special to me, as I lived the moment and it triggers things inside my head that an uninvolved onlooker (you) won’t have access to. I’d built up an elaborate narrative in my head about this man and what he was up to, which gave this image a story. The dreary setting only adds to the mystique for me, however, you likely look at it and see a boring parkscape, devoid of excitment. Could this image work in a series, with other images, giving it more meaning? Maybe. Does it hold up on it’s own as a single? No.

What do you think?

It does serve as a reminder for me that I need to get my ass back out on the road and make new work. I’ve been spending far too much time in my head, dreaming up new ideas that may never lead anywhere.

-Clayton

2025 01 21

Keeping up appearances. Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery, Elwood, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

This is not a political blog. Stocks are up. Get back to work!

Yesterday was tough. It wasn’t just the immediate pivot through a pen that put our country on an aggressive path (I don’t mind some well-meaning aggression); it wasn’t just the the billionaire tech oligarchy showing up at morning mass, followed by selfies in front of the Capitol, followed by the best seats in the house (as governors waited outside), to watch their guy get sworn in without bothering to touch a bible in the process; it wasn’t the crypto tokens issued solely at the benefit of putting billions of dollars into the hands of Trump and his family — peanut farms be dammed (“raise those flags, we’re celebrating”)!; it wasn’t just the ease at which Trump crammed in a full day of getting shit done, while his predecessor returned from another vacation, pardoned his entire family, and then flew off into the sunset never to be seen again; it wasn’t just the clear dog whistles, tone adjustment, and rewarding of behavior once seen as unlawful and unwanted — whatever it takes to make his vision a reality is now fully endorsed and embraced by the Supreme Court through whatever means deemed necessary — we’re living at the whims of one man, a man who has proven over and over to have a fragile ego and questionable character. He’s our man. Our dear leader, just as he wants it. 

Stocks are up. Nothing to see here. Get back to work! 

We finally have a real dude (not some Elite) in charge of things and he alone can fix it, as surely he will. All he needs is four more years of madness and everything will be great again.

Most people I know are choosing to ignore the news and actively avoid learning about what is now happening. I get it, it’s the clear best choice for maintaining your own sanity and keeping your house in order. Touching this madness in any way only leads to trouble. I made the decision to take it all in yesterday, to give myself a sense of what’s to come, and it left my brain hurt and heart confused. I get the outrage that led to this. I get the frustrations that led to this. I get the contempt for the Democratic Party that led to this. What I don’t understand, and what terrifies me, is how quickly we are ditching norms, scrapping laws, and enabling Trump’s darkest impulses — we’re no longer hiding the executive orders from him, we’re stacking them up high and signing them in front of a live studio audience! Rile up the base and blame anything that goes wrong (as it will) on the opposition, the immigrants, them. 

The Democratic Party is almost silent in response. The big guy who wears shorts to work is apparently switching sides this week. He likes to win, too, and there’s a feeling like the level-headed centrists and liberals will never win again. We have rolled over and are playing dead as the system now allows us almost no safeguards in opposition. Even a simple old blog post like this one feels kind of dangerous, like I’m about to be put on some list. Maybe I should’ve voted Trump to at least have that on my file.

How far into the darkest we go before voters take notice, if voting is still a thing after the dust settles, I do not know. But I fear we can only fight crazy with even-more-crazy and we’re now on a long and steady path towards madness.

This is not a political blog. Stocks are up. Get back to work!

-Clayton