2025 05 21
Where we’re going, there won’t be roads. Oregon, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Kyla’s newsletter continues to be my favorite thing to read these days. She’s able to describe the ominous feels of our current existence in ways that make it make economic sense, and which make me better understand my own urge for the weird and the inconvenient.
And not to get too abstract here in my economic newsletter - but rejection, convenience, and absence of surprise are all economic questions. When enough people choose friction over convenience, markets respond. We're seeing early signs of this: the (slow) revival of independent bookstores, the rise of deinfluencing, the growing market for durability over disposability, especially as the economy turns.
These are emerging from the simple recognition that the frictionless life is ultimately unsatisfying. Even the secular, modern, economic soul hungers for something deeper than convenience!
Slightly on this topic, and also because my existing “job” isn’t quite working like it used to, I’m opening up a photobook shop! Well, at the very least, we are running a “proof of concept” that a photobook-dedicated shop is, in fact, the good idea we strongly feel it is. Last Sunday was our first popup and this Sunday is our second. If you want to come check it out, we will be at New Wave Coffee (2557 N Milwaukee Ave) from 10am-2pm on May 25th. After two dates are in the books, and after we assess the response (early signs: good!), I will get into more detail here about what we plan to do.
Give us a follow on Instagram in the meantime (actual website coming later) @Realm.Chicago — oh yeah, we’re called Realm.
-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 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 21
Greenview, Illinois. March, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
I stumbled upon this building while out Illinois Wandering last month and I loved the juxtaposition. Lately, this project is feeling increasingly close to home. It might be a stretch, but my brain is connecting these towns to the difficult times my commercial photo industry is now going through. After the industries and jobs left these places, they sit there today a reminder of what happens when society goes through big shifts. What this next shift will leave us with, I do not know, but I’m finding myself increasingly interested in exploring the last shift in hopes to better understand our likely future.
-Clayton
2025 04 20
“The best view in town.” Peoria, Illinois. March, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 04 13
Classic car in Thawville, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
If you’re in the neighborhood, check out Artesia Brewery.
-Clayton
2025 04 12
Main Street on Chatsworth, Illinois. June, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Another town without people, full of beauty.
-Clayton
2025 04 08
Time is running out. We’re entering a new world. Time Theater. Mattoon, Illinois. April, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
It’s interesting, when you take a mental step back, far back, and consider how we got to where we are today.
Movie studios are being replaced by individual youtubers; magazines are being replaced by individual Substacks; comics are being animated through automation. There is no shortage of examples to indicate how vastly different the landscape of necessary support structures are today, but the one constant is communication. People are seeking authenticity and placing it above all other factors largely because it’s now possible, for the first time ever, to communicate grand ideas — through video, photography, animation, words, all forms — without the need of vast and complicated structures which previously served as a means of control. If the system did not like what you were saying or doing, you had almost no recourse in our previous era. You had to play ball; say the right thing; bribe the right guy; put up with the unsuitable boss.
The downside to the removal of the guardrails, of course, is that we have to deal with chaos. Everyone is right about everything all of the time, which of course means half the population is always wrong. An enemy of the state! What we’ve gained in truth, we’ve given up in caution and stability.
I’m spending far too much time wondering how to make money in today’s wintry economic climate. While the creative community is shrinking in capacity, the supply of creatives is at an all-time high and will continue to grow thanks to the ease and speed of creation now possible. I refuse to become another loud mouth in a sea of attention seekers, which seems to be the obvious path to financial success in these current times.
Trump is now guiding our country because he was accessible, entertaining, and real. Tariffs are now our reality because some guy wrote a book which said all the things he wanted to hear, while using made up information to back it up. The truth doesn’t matter, it’s the message that matters. Communication. Not only what you say but how and where you say it.
The government is not going to save us now, just as the system we’ve burned down to get to where we are, previously, was at its core interested in protecting itself.
If we want a future world that values facts, reason, stability, opportunity, openness, we’re going to have to build it ourselves. I know that there are a lot of us out there, living quietly and patiently, hoping our time will again come, but without effort, our new reality will be one ruled by few and governed through ruthless efficiency — the same tools which have rendered vast industries, and now entire government agencies, no longer relevant — in order to accomplish the desires of few.
Zuckerberg and Altman are building their underground bunkers for a reason, and they’re not going to invite us over for tea.
What I’m seeing now is people choosing sides. It’s human nature to want to win. None of us liberals thought Trump, the guy who tried to burn down the Capital when he didn’t get his way, had a real shot at winning back the White House, but we failed to understand human nature. Facts, niceties, vibes don’t matter when the wolf is at your door and he’s hungry. In a world where it’s every man for themselves, your only real shot is having an army, figuratively or literally, on your side.
This is why I’m writing every day. This is why I’m pushing through the hard times using the best skills I have. The only way out is through.
-Clayton
PS- this entire post came out of me because I was going to share an example of Ai being used to create a comic, which I thought was nice. 😅
2025 04 07
Haley, somewhere in northern Illinois. December, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
I started an account on the new Foto app. While I’m not super optimistic it will become the next big thing in photography sharing, I do like what they seem to be trying to do. Social media has transformed drastically since the innocent early days of Instagram, and I’m finding myself less interested in again reshaping instant-gratification-based phone apps and more interested in slow & steady approaches, such as this here blog and my new site, everyoneisfamous.
All that said, there is no doubt in the potential power social apps hold, and I’m simultaneously finding myself considering a much-reluctant sign up to Tik Tok, as my career pivot will be far more reliant on consistent eye balls than it had been previously. And TikTok is where the eye balls are.
Anyway, if you do happen to be on the Foto app, give me a follow @claytonhauck (be my tenth friend)! The devs will apparently be rolling out a web-based presence later this year, which might be a nice compliment to the mobile app, which has been enjoyable in my experience thus far.
-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 27
Old Main Street is New Main Street. Canton, Illinois. March, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
I did a presentation today for APA Chicago with the theme being personal work. One of the things I discussed was my Ill Wandering work. It’s not work that I’ve spent much time assessing myself yet, as I’ve been more focused on allowing things to play out a bit more organically without forcing anything and focusing too much on any specific theme. That said, it was very much worthwhile to take a step back and further assess the photos I do have.
I’ll share more in the coming months and hope to get back out a bit more regularly this year to expand the body into something more substantial.
-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