2025 07 28

An image by Jack Garland. November, 2022. Easy Does It, Chicago, Illinois. © Clayton Hauck

Can a photo change your life? For me, a working photographer some two decades into my journey, the answer is a clear yes. Images have been shaping my path more than I’ve known for quite a while. I found my wife while making photos (she was, too!). I’ve bought a house and a few cars through making photos. But do the individual images actually have such an impact on things?

This image, displayed during a photo show at Easy Does It, got me out of my house one night and into the world, where I met my now friend Jack Garland. Since the meeting, we’re now running a photobook popup called Realm, with the aim of giving this operation a physical space of its own. I’m now sensing the possibility of this new path, formed at the head by a single image, becoming even wider and guiding me through the middle years of my life.

This message has been paid for by the Photography Corporation of America

-Clayton