2025 02 17
Many photographers I know have too much time on their hands these days.There are two ways to combat this: productively and unproductively.
Unproductively is easy. There is no shortage of games, content, distractions and doomscrolling at your disposal and always within reach. I’ve witnessed photographers fly too close to the information sun and lose their minds. The brain cannot handle having access to any and every piece of information it seeks. ChatGPT will tell you whatever you want to hear and the internet will generate whatever angle fits your desired narrative to click on in exchange for a small sliver of the attention-economy pie.
Productively is much harder, of course. There’s a trap in thinking you can simply continue doing what you did previously and everything will work out just fine (I’ll forever have an image of the old film photographer yelling at the bar about how everyone is putting all of our secrets on the internet for anyone to see—if we could only stop that everything would be fine once again!). The landscape is always changing and the economics evolving even more so.
Many photographers I know have too much time on their hands these days.There are two ways to combat this: productively and unproductively.
Unproductively is easy. There is no shortage of games, content, distractions and doomscrolling at your disposal and always within reach. I’ve witnessed photographers fly too close to the information sun and lose their minds. The brain cannot handle having access to any and every piece of information it seeks. ChatGPT will tell you whatever you want to hear and the internet will generate whatever angle fits your desired narrative to click on in exchange for a small sliver of the attention-economy pie.
Productively is much harder, of course. There’s a trap in thinking you can simply continue doing what you did previously and everything will work out just fine (I’ll forever have an image of the old film photographer yelling at the bar about how everyone is putting all of our secrets on the internet for anyone to see—if we could only stop that everything would be fine once again!). The landscape is always changing and the economics evolving even more so.
I’m in a phase now where I’m trying out all sorts of things (planting seeds) to see if any of them stick. As with anything, time and dedication are required. Oftentimes this doesn’t feel very productive.
“Do something connected to photography every day of your life and you’ll be surprised what happens,” said Richard Avedon to me and this blog was born. One year later and here we are, not a single project has come of it! Why?!
“Nobody wants to read about you complaining about the photography market,” my friend Jack consults me. He’s half right but the half he’s right about is the half that matters: put the type of work out into the world in which you want to be paid for. Easier said than done, of course, but the point is that me complaining about stuff on the internet will only draw frustrated eyes looking for a pity party. Yelling about how corrupt and doomed we are politically-speaking might give me an audience, but they’re only going to want to hear the message that drew them to me in the first place, which is not productive.
I posted an image of Wade up top and noticed he’s got a new website coming. I, too, came to the realization that a new portfolio website is needed (maybe it’ll stop the emails I get for people wanting free commercial photography? Maybe nothing will stop that.). This is my current priority: rebrand myself, clean up and elevate my image, and likely most importantly learn to communicate my wins opposed to just dwelling on the losses. These are not groundbreaking insights but sometimes keeping yourself busy and focused is the best thing you can do. I have so much to be excited and thankful for, and I’ve long shunned talking about that stuff, for one complicated reason or another. That’s bad for business! In this wintry economic climate, we need to stay laser focused on keeping the business running, or risk relegation to the doomscroll-content factory.
-Clayton
2025 01 10
“Photography is about light, but photography without love is nothing.” - Photographer John White (via Chicago Magazine)
-Clayton
For the love of the game. Slappy Curb. Chicago, Illinois. November, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
“Photography is about light, but photography without love is nothing.” - Photographer John White (via Chicago Magazine)
-Clayton