2025 12 31

In bar light, he looked alright. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

(Not) Becoming a Bar Owner in 2026
For last year’s post about becoming a bar owner this year, please see: 2024 12 31

The last note of 2025, which I will try to keep brief. One thing I’m left to consider is how I need to update my Year-End Considerations for next year, instead of simply revisiting the ones I make a year ago. I will get to this in the new year, but for now, let’s talk bars!

This is another one that I did not anticipate to play out as it actually did. Early in the year, a building came up for sale which attracted the interest of a friend of mine looking for both a new spot to live in a building he could own. The specific building also happened to house a longtime bar called WeeGees. Perhaps it was irony or perhaps it was fate; the fact that while somewhat actively looking for a bar project to dive into, one named after a photographer, and in my own neighborhood, becomes available.

Smash cut to today and I sit on my couch as a non-bar owner. We were realistically not prepared or qualified to be serious contenders for that particular project, but in hindsight it was likely a good thing it played out as it did. While it did feel like destiny in a strange way, my reality today would be so much different in almost every way imaginable had the project moved forward. While I’m sure some of those aspects might be improvements, I have to think that the time I’ve been able to put towards photography and art has been more fulfilling to me than old fashioneds and cleaning the bathroom at the bar.

This dream of mine isn’t dead, but it’s on hiatus for perhaps another time when it makes more sense.

See ya next year…

-Clayton

This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of Year-End Contemplation posts from 2025, please see: 2025 12 25.
For the complete list of Year-End Contemplation posts from 2024, please see: 2024 12 25.

2025 12 28

Sorting through images to make a zine. Chicago, Illinois. August, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

Becoming a (Physical) Photobook Shop Owner in 2026
For last year’s post about becoming a photobook shop owner this year, please see: 2024 12 28

Realm Books exists! Realm Books LLC is a legal entity with a bank account, inventory of many books and zines, and two working photographers at the controls of the ship.

Among all of last year’s resolutions, this is the one that gained the most traction. Had you asked me to guess if it would play out like it has, I would not have suspected it. However, the catalyst came when my now-partner at the bookshop and I met up for beers last winter and ultimately decided to make a go at it. Previously, it was me asking Jack if he wanted to team up on my crazy idea to open a shop. He’d had similar thoughts but I wasn’t able to convince him. Once he eventually came around to the idea, our motivation reach a level of critical mass and the bookshop was formed.

To summarize the year in brief: Realm’s first popup was May 18th and our selection of titles was tiny. Looking back, it’s cute and almost funny to see how quaint our table appeared. After grinding it out for many weeks, our collection grew and the excitement and enthusiasm we heard voiced to us from so many photography lovers kept us pushing forward. For the year, Realm did 21 popups at various locations around town; 1 book fair at Staple + Stitch; 2 photo shows (with David Catalano and Bryan Birks) at my See You Soon studio; 97 books and 27 zines were put into inventory; and one zine was published of my own work under the Realm name.

While this is all very exciting, the realities of running a small business never pause and the constant need to do more things is always there, nagging at you every day. I thought it would be a fun thought experiment to look back at my list of Pros and Cons, which I posted one year ago, before Realm existed, and reply from my current perspective some eight months into the project.

Clayton’s 2024 Pros and Cons, with replies from Clayton’s 2025 Perspective:

• PRO: Will gain a ton of experience and understanding of what other photographers are up to. Endless inspiration (aka things to steal)!

This is probably my favorite part about running a bookshop. I wrote a few days ago (see: 2025 12 26) about how I feel like I’m back at school, and it’s this constant stream of new work that I’m being exposed to which is the main reason for this. Sure, you don’t need a bookshop to gain access to these images, however, much like this here blog serves a role in keeping me in check and better focusing my energies, the bookshop does the same. Beyond the books we’ve ordered, I’m now constantly hunting for new things we might be able to put into the shop, and in turn discovering things I would not have previously encountered.

• CON: Will possibly have too much exposure to other people’s work, to the point that it will affect my own work a bit too much, in a bad way, or burn out on photography.

This was a serious concern of mine previously but has not been an issue whatsoever. If anything, I’m more inspired than ever to do my own type of work because I now have more confidence that my voice has value and I am capable of putting things into the world that other people will be excited to see.

• PRO: Will gain a huge photobook library that will be impressive (to some people)!

Honestly, not counting our bookshop inventory, my collection hasn’t grown dramatically, mostly because I’ve bought less books for myself this year than I have in year’s prior. This is for various reasons (namely: budget conscious, shelves full, and it’s now my job to buy books). But the thing that gets me most excited is not my own personal collection, but what we might be able to build for the shop. One dream vision of mine is to place one copy of each book we stock into a future photobook library that will be available for anyone to check out and browse in a future physical location.

• CON: Will have a huge photobook library that I will need to put somewhere and transport somehow (hard!).

Logistics is easily our biggest challenge currently. Realistically, the only reason we’ve been able to make the shop work is because I’ve turned my office into a book warehouse and purchased some large shelving on casters in order to be able to store everything. Considering we are still a tiny operation, I can only imagine how much bigger this challenge can become as we scale. If publishing becomes more of a focus, it will become exponentially more challenging still.

Jack made the comment recently about how he finally understood how publishers will magically “find” boxes of old books they didn’t realize they still had and I totally get it.

• PRO: Will make a living and/or have a bit more consistent income through doing something that I love to do (assuming the business does work as I think it would!)

Complicated! When I said logistics was the biggest challenge, I guess I forgot about money. Eight months into this business, we have not paid ourselves anything. All the money made from book sales has gone back into buying more book inventory. When you consider the amount of time we’ve invested into making it all happen, it becomes apparent why nobody has yet done this in Chicago. While it has very much been a passion project, I am still cautiously optimistic we’ll be able to pay ourselves a (very small) salary next year — though “real” money won’t come unless we’re able to scale into a physical space offering things other than just photobooks.

• CON: Will spend a lot of my time working in the photobook store, sourcing inventory, packing and shipping (my local post office has 1.9 stars on google. I stopped in there yesterday and they were not accepting customers because “the clerk was out,” as told to us by the apparently-not clerk), and generally doing things that take away my time and opportunities for creating new work of my own vs sharing the work of others in exchange for money.

Bingo! As just mentioned, so much of my time is now spent making Realm happen. On the positive side, the post office concerns have not materialized as we mostly use pickups and do drop-offs at a newly discovered location run by a super nice clerk. That said, we do a majority of our sales at in-person events, so shipping has not yet become the beast it will inevitably become if we are able to scale this thing into something bigger.

• PRO: Will make many new connections in the photo industry and likely some new friends as well!

Hell yeah! This one is a big one and has been probably the most rewarding aspect of running the shop thus far. The community aspect of things has been great and I’ve been able to meet and hang with some people I’d previously only known through their work. I can only imagine this will continue and be the driving force that keeps us pushing forward. Just today, a legendary photography ordered a book from us, which I now need to go pack and ship…

• CON: Will be forced to do more things I dislike doing, such as legal paperwork, taxes, bureaucracy, posting and responding to people on social media.

Ugh—yes. Figuring out how to pay state sales tax was daunting (still not sure we’re doing it right?!). Tax season is around the corner and we’re not looking forward to learning more bureaucratic necessities. And if our online sales ever pick up steam, learning how to stay in good standing with fifty different states (not even considering international shipping) will be a full-time job in itself.

• CON: lots and lots and lots of breaking down boxes.

Eh, I’ve learned to kinda enjoy it!

Bonus CON: I wanted to add a new entry from this year. Perhaps my biggest takeaway thus far from running the shop is that my personal opinions are less important than I expected and the shop is a public-facing entity that needs to approach the world in ways that I myself would not. Managing egos and expectations from your customers, non-customers, suppliers, and artists is challenging! Just yesterday, we were accused of being sexist, which both stings and becomes a time-consuming process of handling in a sensitive matter. Remembering that you need to separate yourself from the business will forever be a challenge, but also one I am ready and excited to take on, as I’m confident I will only grow and benefit from it.

I’m not sure if any of this is interesting to anyone but myself, but I’m mostly doing this post to give myself a warm pat on the back. Setting up the shop is probably the thing I’m most proud of this year and optimistic it has a shot at being something that defines the rest of my career. Just yesterday, we went and looked at a spot that could become the future home of Realm!

Anyway, back to work…

-Clayton

This is one entry in a multi-part series of self-exploration and contemplation-out-loud in advance of the new calendar year. Some of this may happen; none of this may happen.
For the complete list of Year-End Contemplation posts from 2025, please see: 2025 12 25.
For the complete list of Year-End Contemplation posts from 2024, please see: 2024 12 25.

2025 09 25

Pointing at Stuff, now in zine form! Chicago, Illinois. September, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

Have you heard? Print is back! I’ve decided to take this here blog, or at least a new incarnation of it, and make it a printed book. You can now pre-order the first edition over on our photobook shop Realm. The process of making this (while not yet finished) has been thoroughly enjoyable and the aim is to put out two of these per year moving forward. Any pre-orders also get a signed print. It’s a so good you should probably drop everything and go pre-order your copy immediately!

I’ll get into more detail about the book in the coming days or weeks. I’ve got a lot of writing on the back-burner these days…

-Clayton

2025 09 17

Some of my photos hanging on the wall. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

I continue to be behind on so many things. Clearly, this is because I am doing (or at least attempting to do) far too many things. One of the big things I need to do is catch up on editing my Illinois Wandering personal images I’ve made this year. Perhaps even more importantly, I need to send out all of the photos I’ve made of people on the road whom I told I would send photos to. I’m convinced this is creating some kind of cosmic jam that is preventing me from moving forward on a number of things. Sorry, everyone. I will send you those images I promised you soon.

-Clayton

2025 08 19

It’s me (Covid free)! See You Soon, Chicago, Illinois. December, 2022. © Clayton Hauck

I’m on day it feels like twelve of having covid but it seems like I’m about out of the woods (* knocks on wood *…long covid terrifies me). One upside to being sick for a week is that I’ve had a lot of downtime. I’ve put much of that towards building (yet another) website for our Realm photobook popup. I’m aiming to get a soft launch up in the next week or so, and will drop the info here when it’s live.

One really exciting benefit to putting all of this time into selling other peoples’ photography is that I’m schooling myself on many things I didn’t know that I should’ve known. Having somewhat neglected the photo world (esp the fine art part of it) for many years myself, it’s been refreshing to jump back in headfirst and fully submerge myself in all-things-photography. My inspiration levels are quite high, and while I have no shortage of images to share currently, I’m still quite excited to get back out and make new work exploring new areas of the field.

-Clayton

2025 05 27

Checking in on myself. Self portrait, Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. © Clayton Hauck

If you’re like me (a US-based commercial photographer with decades of experience in the industry), chances are you’re experiencing the same issues I’m struggling to navigate: less projects to bid on; unrealistic-to-impossible expectations for many of the bids that do come in; projects mysteriously fading away. To be blunt, things are kind of shit these days. What keeps me going, in part, is that these challenges are not new and downturns are standard in this business. What worries me beyond the norm, however, is that this time things feel different — like the downturn may never pick back up again.

The headwinds aren’t going away. At best, they will get less forceful.

When considering the state of the industry, I imagine myself navigating an epic journey — camera backpack on with overly-heavy bag of lights and grip on my shoulder, while facing sustained headwinds whipping in my face as I try to advance. These headwinds are the many challenges facing the industry, and the thing that worries me is that I can’t imagine them going away anytime soon.

What Are The Big Challenges?

• Supply & Demand: increasingly more photographers, influencers, content creators, work-for-themselves types & increasingly less projects at increasingly lower rates

• Social Media: the way ads are now served has completely changed and everything is moving to video-first, lower quality is fine if not preferred

• Barriers to Entry: it’s increasingly cheap and easy to get a camera, lighting, etc and learn how to use it

• Ai: this one, I think, had previously been over-hyped but will soon be under-hyped as it cuts out upwards of half of all paid photography needs

• Commoditization: a new entry! See below

My mental list, already difficult to navigate, has gained a new bullet point after a conversation with my agent. While I’d already felt myself becoming a literal cog in the machine, as the industry becomes commoditized and we go the way of commercial airline pilots (let’s talk about that Rehearsal finale over beers, huh?!), I’d failed to visualize the global scale of this shift. When Hollywood unions went on strike a few years back, the New Economy content streamers didn’t sit on the sidelines and wait things out, they went global. Production was shifted outside of the US and kept right on going. This motivated companies to shoot jobs in foreign countries with lower costs — essentially, globalization of the creative industry.

I live in the Rust Belt, so it was perhaps silly of me to not see this one coming. But as I’ve written about previously and touched on here, there are so many talented photographers all over the world. It makes business-sense to hire the kid in Mexico (see: 2025 02 18) if he’s going to deliver you a project better than you can get locally and at a third of the price.

Photography isn’t going away, but my baseline thinking is that we’re already living in a New Reality, which makes making a living through photography all the more challenging. As a hobby, photography is more popular than ever. More people are making photos than at any point in history, and this trend will probably only continue, even after Ai takes over the world. I think it’s important for us to shift our thinking in terms of how we can make money through photography, if you’re like me and that’s all you really want to do.

Admittedly, my perspective on all of this is likely far more skewed and niche than most, as I’ve been fortunate enough to have made a good living doing higher-end commercial projects for large brands. Many younger photographers, or photographers focused on small to mid-sized business, may completely disagree with everything I am saying, understandably. It’s true, there still are vast opportunities out there for photographers, however, the amount of hustle required to find them is likely forever on the rise.

For me, there are a number of pivots I am currently navigating and exploring:

• I’m doing more “content” photography through my various blogs (this one, everyoneisfamous.com), which could lead to payment in other ways (sponsorships, collabs, events, direct payments, yada yada). It’s a hustle.

• I’m also pivoting quite hard towards motion, as I’m finding most of the projects that do come our way are video-first. I just landed one assignment that a video production company won, and was bidding on and lost another project that a video production company won (and then reached out to see if I could do photography for).

• I’m exploring a more artistic approach (Doing personal work; selling prints, zines, eventually a photobook, etc, etc). That’s also a hustle and an entirely new role, as the worlds are like oil and water in many ways.

• Previously, I’d given myself a new job as a photo studio (See You Soon) manager and owner. This has worked well in some ways (networking, exploring things, having fun) and poorly in others (not making money and taking away most of my free time). While it’s been a huge challenge, I haven’t given up on it yet. Tweaking the model and bringing in new and motivated partners, while using the space to re-focus my own career in a number of ways, is where my head is at currently…

• Studio portraits is something I have never chosen to focus on until recently, but am now finding myself both enjoying it and considering it as a path towards more consistent income though photography.

• I’m exploring more of a focus towards small-to-mid-sized clients. The thing is, I just love to make images — if I could fill my calendar with interesting lower-rate jobs in exchange for never shooting another big-budget production again in my lifetime, it would be a deal I would take. The catch is, this also requires a time-consuming new approach towards finding clients and comes with a ding to your reputation; big-shot commercial photographers aren’t working for the local plumber and neither are top-tier art photographers.

• I’ve also recently given myself a new job running a photobook popup with my friend Jack called Realm (IG: @realm.chicago, website coming later!). We’re both excited about this, however, understand that any success will realistically be modest and also require a lot of hard work.

So that’s where my head is at right now. It has been a mental grind these last few years, and I’m hopeful that finding a more sustainable approach towards making a living through photography can be found. As I get older, the bang and bust lifestyle gets tiring, and I’m finding myself seeking consistency. Do what you love, they say. While this is loaded advice — oftentimes the things you love, when they become a job, lose their luster. All that said, I’m more in love with photography now than I have been in my two decades of working with it, so I think it’s a clear sign that dedicating the remainder of my life to it might not be a bad idea.

-Clayton

A previous version of this post had misspelled “niche” as nitche, likely because the author was thinking all big and philosophically. It’s cool that we’ve built Ai into every app and website, but haven’t mastered the spell check.

2025 03 07

Me, ill wandering. Somewhere in Illinois. December, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It is my birthday.

-Clayton