2025 08 31
A tree disappears into the distance. Bloomington, Indiana. November, 2022. © Clayton Hauck
In “Screwtape Proposes a Toast,” C.S. Lewis goes all-in on a vision of democratic decline. His writing from seventy-or-so years ago hit me like a slap to the face while our democracy appears to be failing all around us. The read is worth you time (as is his book I found it in: The Screwtape Letters), but I only bring it up to lay out the scene for today’s short story.
Perhaps it was my mood affecting me; on a rare day off, while doing house chores, dripping in sweat, I opened my email to see a message from a producer asking me to get him an image pull by the end of the day. Everything is always needed immediately in my business. What would normally be a nice thing to see (someone potentially interested in you working on a project), on this day struck me as being so frustrating that I reconsidered my entire career. Clearly, this specific incident, while slightly annoying in its timing (I’d really needed this day to catch up on house chores I’d been neglecting!), was more so a reminder of bigger concerns and frustrations with the industry (won’t get into all that now). Regardless of why I was frustrated, it was another detail that put me over the edge this specific day: I didn’t like the specific client I would be making the work for.
While I was having my existential crisis, I reached out to a number of trusted friends to get their opinion on my dilemma. The client, you see, was one that hasn’t had much good PR recently. Quite the opposite, in fact. I figured the trusted council I received would at least somewhat mirror my reluctance to drop everything to help out this particular corporation, however, without fail everyone told me, simply: take the money! In my head, it was a lose-lose situation. The universe was testing me and I didn’t even fully understand the potential consequences, I just knew it was somehow a fork-in-the-road moment.
I don’t think I’m unique in feeling like not much is working these days. It’s not just my job and my industry, it’s most peoples’. This, perhaps, was my biggest takeaway from the incident, which is now well behind me (I didn’t get the job, but I did try to! I could really use the money, of course). My thinking was that friends would see my frustrations and side with me, but I was instead met with the exact opposite reaction — shit is hard right now and you need to take a win when you can get it.
In trying to end this thought on a positive note, I pondered a way to tie it back towards The Screwtape Letters. But since this incident occurred, screwworm has entered the United States, so perhaps it is more appropriate to end it in dismay. Stay sane out there.
-Clayton
2025 08 27
Catalpa tree and sunset storm clouds. Chicago, Illinois. May, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
-Clayton
2025 08 11
Catalpa in bloom. Chicago, Illinois. June, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
The tree on our corner is a favorite of mine. This image reminded me that I have some video I was planning to cut together. Video, it seems, is always something I’m forgetting to cut together…
-Clayton
2025 05 11
Roadside tree. Outside DeKalb, Illinois. April, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
I’ve been kind of obsessed with photographing roadside trees out in rural farmland lately. Maybe this could be a zine project…
-Clayton
2025 04 10
Winter tree. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
This is a photo of a helicopter. I promise.
-Clayton
2025 02 28
Bird of prey. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
Sometimes you walk to get tacos and on your way back to the studio see a hawk in the tree and snap a bunch of photos of it, then get back to the studio, eat the tacos, do some emails, open up the Lapse app to see the photos have developed and download one to post on your blog that probably nobody will ever see. Shit, looks like it back-focused. We’ll get him next time. Tacos were solid, at least.
-Clayton
2025 02 16
Winter light. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2025. © Clayton Hauck
There’s a high-contrast look to winter sunlight that I quite like. No leafed-out trees to filter and soften the sun. No wet and wispy clouds to add texture to the backdrop. Just the raw and real elements. Take it, or hop a flight down south, and leave it.
-Clayton
2025 01 15
Yesterday, some events went down that were quite eye opening for me. At this point, it’s rather well known how dangerous social media can be for our psychology, but that doesn’t stop most of us from using it all day, every day. I had a friend hit what I’d call rock bottom (he will disagree, of course), and it gave me some newfound urgency towards keeping better track of my own social media habits and usage.
There’s a link to an article below by Kyla Scanlon, which I also happened to read the same morning, which is quite brilliant and the the closest thing to required reading that I can think of in these wild times. While I somewhat disagree with Kyla on the point of TikTok specifically (I am in favor of a full ban without Chinese reciprocity), she is incredibly poignant in her thoughts and views on this countries’ use of social media broadly.
“The problem is that it’s an addiction. We are addicted to being informed, which makes complete sense, because we are little animals. If the rabbit could know exactly what danger it could or will face, it would be all over RabbitTok. Our little brains love knowing exactly what is up, and we love being nosy. These platforms haven't created these desires - they've just monetized them with unprecedented efficiency. But it’s making us inhumane.”
Lone tree. Somewhere outside Woodstock, Illinois. December, 2024. © Clayton Hauck
Yesterday, some events went down that were quite eye opening for me. At this point, it’s rather well known how dangerous social media can be for our psychology, but that doesn’t stop most of us from using it all day, every day. I had a friend hit what I’d call rock bottom (he will disagree, of course), and it gave me some newfound urgency towards keeping better track of my own social media habits and usage.
There’s a link to an article below by Kyla Scanlon, which I also happened to read the same morning, which is quite brilliant and the the closest thing to required reading that I can think of in these wild times. While I somewhat disagree with Kyla on the point of TikTok specifically (I am in favor of a full ban without Chinese reciprocity), she is incredibly poignant in her thoughts and views on this countries’ use of social media broadly.
“The problem is that it’s an addiction. We are addicted to being informed, which makes complete sense, because we are little animals. If the rabbit could know exactly what danger it could or will face, it would be all over RabbitTok. Our little brains love knowing exactly what is up, and we love being nosy. These platforms haven't created these desires - they've just monetized them with unprecedented efficiency. But it’s making us inhumane.”
I read that passage and was like, yeah, she got me. She got us.
I highly urge you to check out her article here. And to limit your social media usage. Blogs are so much cooler, after all.
-Clayton