2024 03 18

Filmmaker & educator Anu Rana in my See You Soon studio as a subject in my Keep it 100 portrait setup. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

It’s Monday. Back to work…

Here’s a little self promotion. I do a really fun portrait setup in my studio where I offer $100 portrait sessions in which participants get 100 unique photos of themselves. No AI, no fancy Photoshop tricks, just a unique approach to good old fashioned portrait photography.

➡️ You can check out more about the process, or book a session next time I’m offering it, here on the studio page.

-Clayton

2024 03 17

A pint of beer sits atop the bar at Art History Brewing in Geneva, IL. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Gone Drinkin’!

Nobody reads this blog on Sundays and I’m off exploring the state a bit, wandering, making some photos and considering if I might want to sink a bunch of time into a broader Illinois art photobook project I have brewing in my brain.

-Clayton

2024 03 16

Bladesmith Sam Goldborch in his studio in Skokie, Illinois. September, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Late last year, I covered this assignment for Chicago Magazine where I spent three days with knife maker Sam Goldbroch in his studio outside of Chicago while he made a custom chef’s knife from scratch. It was a cool experience and I was really happy with the images I came away with, however, it left me thinking the still photos were a bit less effective than perhaps a well-made video would be in showing viewers the entire process from start to finish, having just experienced it myself in person.

Flash forward to now, after the Chicago piece ran, seeing an email from my uncle with a link to a really well done video featuring Anthony Bourdain in his visit to another bladesmith, Bob Kramer. That video can be viewed below and is worth a watch while also serving a sad reminder of how much I miss Anthony Bourdain.

-Clayton

➡️ Click here to see the Chicago Magazine piece
➡️ Click here to see more of my photos from the shoot

2024 03 15

Rural Illinois farmland. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

On Banning TikTok

I’m not aiming to make this a news commentary blog with quick takes on current events, but let me take a few moments to jot down some thoughts on this possible TikTok ban legislation currently in the news: 

There’s an evolving summary of America I have in my head that is essentially boiled down to this: America will (more or less) let you do whatever you want unless you fuck with America—then America will kill you.

One of my complaints with America boils down to the killing portion of this summary, in the sense that I think we should be doing less of it. Killing people to solve our problems never seems to work, yet we go back to this game plan repeatedly for reasons I’ve yet to fully understand. Our current misguided killing, being done through our friends in Israel, has grown wildly unpopular in no small part due to the efforts of the fine folks behind TikTok. 

You’d maybe think that, for this reason, I’d be against the banning of TikTok but you’d be wrong. I’ve been in favor of TikTok regulations for what seems like an eternity now; Since before Trump was in favor of banning it, before he “changed his mind” and decided he doesn’t care so much after all.

Part of the problem is how we are discussing the topic as a ban. Scott Galloway put it well by saying we don’t consider 65 mile per hour speed limit signs as the banning of cars, we think of them as a safety regulation on driving, which is exactly how we should talk about implementing new restraints on social media apps (be it foreign-owned names like TikTok or domestic products). Calling it a ban sounds unnecessarily extreme, especially in this time of extreme actions, when having resources to freely vent our frustrations is as important as ever.

That said, it’s the foreign-owned aspect of this issue that is what’s going to lead to this so-called ban on TikTok. Lawmakers were supposedly inundated with calls from frustrated kids who were prompted and connected by their TikTok app in an effort to stop this legislation. Ordinarily, this would be standard operating procedure in our so-called democracy, however, it’s now being seen as the weaponizing of our youth by a foreign power in which we have no control. This, coinciding with the turning of the narrative against our stupid war is what has lawmakers fed up; Turning the social network into an echo chamber of discontent aimed directly at the United States by a foreign interest with a different viewpoint. America is being fucked with!

But how is this justification to outright ban a foreign company—just because you don’t like how they are shining a light on your shady dealings?! Well, my beef with TikTok is more due to unfair business practices (China does not allow US companies to operate within China yet expects us to allow them to operate here) and with social media toxicity generally. I don’t think we should be allowing our youth to use consequence-free, unregulated social media as we do, but since we’re a “free country” and lawmakers shrug their shoulders at the idea of implementing any sort of protection in this regard, we should at the very least ensure these companies, whom we’re allowing to raise our children, are not run by uncooperative foreign actors with motives fully unknown to us. That it takes a shitty war largely of our making is an unfortunate means to an end, I fully agree.

Damn. This took entirely too long to write, still comes off as generally vague and unconvincing, and therefore is why I don’t write commentary on news. Anyway, to distill my thoughts even further, I will say this: I think TikTok should be regulated, as I think all social media companies should have better oversight and far more accountability. I don’t think this country should allow foreign access to our markets without at least some level of reciprocity. The world is an increasingly-complicated-and-increasingly-connected place and the people who control the algorithms have as much power as the people who control the guns. TikTok isn’t going away, there’s too much money at stake, but US leadership has finally seen the light on how vital control of the world’s most popular social network is to the operation of the American Machine, and that is why they will somehow, someway, wrestle away enough control of it to better sleep at night.

And I’m going back to making photos while thinking less about messy geopolitical social media attention wars that are really about money, power, and control of the people.

🎵tiktok chime🎵

-Clayton

2024 03 14

Evergreen tree hit with rising sunlight creating a neat effect. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Is anyone putting out albums anymore? Anytime I hear a fun, previously-unfamiliar song served to me by Spotify’s algorithm, I get excited to hear more and click on the album only to discover it’s just a single and there’s nothing more to listen to, which then makes me sad.

This concludes my 60 Minutes Andy Rooney replacement audition tape.

-Clayton

2024 03 13

Lone Wolf bar patrons Haley and Allison. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Recently, I came across a new-to-me photography podcast titled Visual Revolutionary and gave an episode a listen. This episode was a thought-provoking one with an interview of Jason Peterson in which they discussed his new agency The Times. I’m not going to dive deep into my take on what they discussed in this blog (maybe another day? Definitely a topic I’ve been stewing on a lot lately which basically is boiled down to everyone now needing to do more work with less resources and compensation), but I did want to pass it along in case any of y’all were interested in the topic. To summarize: Jason is a(n Instagram-famous) photographer and ad agency-executive who left the more traditional agency world to start a new leaner take on how to be a content-producing agency, which largely boils down to hiring less people, younger people, cheaper people, leaning into AI, working cheap and fast, using social media and all things digital to execute the work quicker while it’s still topical.

In keeping with the theme of The Times, I jotted down some notes as I listened to the podcast, which were then fed into ChatGPT and summarized below, for your my convenience.

The conversation delves into the operational dynamics of an agency, shedding light on its revenue model, organizational structure, and adaptation to contemporary trends. It's noted that agencies, much like lawyers, often prioritize elongating processes and expanding their workforce for financial gain, rather than solely focusing on client needs. In this particular agency, most team members, aside from one or two, are involved in production and creative tasks. The agency boasts significant assets, including a spacious production facility with comprehensive equipment, enabling agile responses to topical narratives. Notably, the speaker, Jason, previously associated with Havas, implemented a strategy of recruiting young talent from platforms like Instagram and TikTok, contributing to substantial growth. Despite resistance from traditional practitioners, Jason emphasizes the need for adaptation or replacement to remain competitive. With a relatively small team of 25 employees, the agency leverages digital platforms to reach a broader audience and emphasizes the importance of innovation over entrenched practices. Additionally, the discussion highlights the agency's integration of AI technology, such as ChatGPT for copywriting, and its exploration of AI applications in video production. Referred to as the "Content Playhouse," the agency showcases a commitment to content creation and innovation in storytelling. Overall, the conversation underscores the agency's modern, technology-driven approach to content creation and its proactive stance towards industry evolution.

-Clayton

2024 03 12

Two people walk down a street in Grand Detour, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Recently, I asked ChatGPT if it knew me and its reply made me wonder if it perhaps has access to alternate universe. It told me:

Clayton Hauck is a photographer based in Chicago known for his documentary-style photography and his work capturing the city's culture, events, and everyday life. He has contributed to various publications and projects, showcasing his unique perspective on Chicago's urban landscape. Additionally, Hauck is the co-founder of the popular photography project and blog, "Everybody Street Chicago," which celebrates the diverse street photography scene in the city.

My follow-up: What is Everybody Street Chicago?

My apologies for the typo. "Everybody Street Chicago" is a photography project and blog founded by Clayton Hauck and others. The project aims to showcase the diverse street photography scene in Chicago by featuring the work of various photographers who capture candid moments, scenes, and characters encountered on the city streets. It serves as a platform for photographers to share their perspectives and stories through their images, offering a unique glimpse into the vibrant urban life of Chicago.

Me again: That’s cool! When was this project founded?

The "Everybody Street Chicago" project was founded in 2010. Since then, it has grown to become a prominent platform for street photographers to share their work and perspectives on the dynamic urban landscape of Chicago.

None of this is true but my hunch is the AI dataset has some fragmented information about my past, including both that I have been a street photographer and that I started a website called EveryoneisFamous.com. The website was essentially how I self-taught myself photography and where I regularly posted my photos which mostly consisted of nightlife, parties, and music scenes, but not street photography. 

This simple inaccuracy got me thinking about what my life could have been if instead of focusing on the party scene I’d focused on street photography and started a website revolving around that. It’s a fairly common consideration I’ve been having lately—between art photography and commercial photography—so when AI suggested I perhaps lived an alternate timeline, it seemed both relevant and plausible!

Perhaps there’s still time for me to get that popular street photography project up and running. 

-Clayton

2024 03 11

The former alderman is now retired and his suburban-style home, built thanks to being an insider able to bend the system to his own wishes, has seemingly moved on to places unknown. Time keeps on slipping.
Humboldt Park, Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

May all your problems be boring

One of my favorite writers dropped a new substack (lol) that hit close to home. Tim Kreider is one of those writers who makes writing look fun and easy, like maybe something I could do if I put my mind to it. This is not to say I think writing is easy, but an appreciation of his skill for making it appear to be so. Like a person living a simple-yet-interesting life while occasionally heading to the computer to jot down some words along the way in exchange for money to keep the whole operation going. Are we allowed to start a sentance with the word like? I don’t know, I’m only a pretend writer.

Getting old is on my mind basically all the time now. Having just celebrated yet another birthday in what seems to be an increasingly-faster routine of numbers going up. Forty snuck up on me, as the end of my thirties was spent locked down in our house waiting out a global pandemic. This seems unfair to me but my problems are probably not so interesting to you. Instead, take a moment to read Tim’s birthday wish contemplating life and getting older below.

➡️ On Boring Problems

2024 03 10

Photographer Saverio Truglia loads in supplies for a photo shoot at See You Soon. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

In researching (aka looking for ideas to steal) video content to help me “pivot to video” six years too late to salvage my commercial photography career, I remembered a great website that was super inspiring back in the day called California is a Place. This website was super ahead of it’s time back then and the content holds up today, while serving me a nice reminder that filmmaking was my original passion that got me into this mess to begin with!

Anyway, time for me to make some videos.

-Clayton

2024 03 09

Car under wraps in Chicago’s Humboldt Park neighborhood. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Uh oh — I’m out of buffer! The wrap on my brain is being revealed to show I’ve run out of ideas only a few month’s into this project!

Well, not really, but finding the time to do a daily post is proving to be more time consuming than I’d anticipated. I’m aiming to avoid simply plopping down an image with a meaningless sentence, but creating posts with deeper meaning is time consuming. If only we had a way to automate this process! (Kidding. That’s what AI is and yes I’m still obsessing over it and how it is coming for all of our jobs).

Enjoy the weekend. I’m off to think up more thoughts (have plenty of pictures).

-Clayton

2024 03 08

Buddy the dog’s post-operation scar. October, 2023. Chicago, Illinois © Clayton Hauck

Do you think dogs think humans are idiots? We put their poop in a little bag and carry it around with us then dispose of it in another bigger bag when clearly they wanted it right where they strategically dropped it. 

I’ve come to think of dogs like graffiti artists, frantically leaving their mark on the landscape to let others know they exist and hopefully find some admirers.

-Clayton

2024 03 07

Filmmaker, writer, director, actor, friend Kenneth Yoder caught in a moment. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

Movie Idea: A man spends a lifetime attempting to figure everything out, does, then promptly dies before writing it all down or telling someone about it.

Let’s make a movie!!

-Clayton

2024 03 06

Aftermath of a neighbors’ house fire. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Everyone is safe, which is all that matters. The moments during the fire, which woke you up in the middle of the night, confused, smelling smoke in the air, seeing the lights and the hearing the muffled commotion out the window but unsure what was happening, are now seared into your brain. You step outside onto the back porch to try and gauge what is happening and see your neighbor rushing outside of his house. “Everyone is safe,” he yells up to you in a voice that doesn’t sound like his own.

It is no longer a home but a place transformed into somewhere that something happened. The first floor is dirty, wet and disheveled as if a college keg party had taken place during the night only to have the participants flee from any cleanup responsibilities. There are streaks of mud on the floors and walls showing the movements of people at a different time. Walking up the stairs, the space is transformed into something unrecognizable. The ceiling and roof are missing, revealing charred wooden beams and a view of the late afternoon sky above. Coldness fills the air giving a clear feeling of abandonment. The floor everywhere is spongey and wet with debris scattered throughout, making movement difficult and dangerous. You get the sensation that the floor may be structurally compromised from all the weight of things.

You then realize this is likely the last time you will be in this place and, unknowingly, your last visit to this home had already occurred without even knowing it. Something monotonous that was actually meaningful. Everything has changed in a moment. The structure will need to be demolished and replaced with something new; it will be made from modern materials and of a modern design; another old growth, hand crafted, century old home lost to time, never to return. New people will eventually fill the space, completing the transition into something fully unfamiliar and new. One spark from a busted furnace altering the course of lives.

It’s at this time you take to heart life’s fragile reality, rearrange your priorities a bit, and call your insurance broker to get some clarity on what your fire coverage is like in a worst-case scenario — the kind you previously never considered one day might happen to you.

-Clayton

2024 03 05

Abandoned television. Chicago, Illinois. September, 2023. © Clayton Hauck

While getting ready for the day this morning, NPR did a full hour on libraries. While this is a breath of fresh air in it’s own regard, it reminded me of the Fred Rogers Senate testimony video which I like to watch from time to time. If you haven’t yet seen it yourself, take a moment to give it a watch!

-Clayton

2024 03 04

Apartment complex I often photograph as I walk this stretch. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

As a way to get myself to watch less youtube videos, I’m initiating a rule that if I watch a video I find worthwhile, I need to write about it on the ole daily photo blog.

As I was getting my morning coffee, they asked how I was. You know, the rhetorical “how are you?" only I bit and mentioned my head was all jumbled up with a mess of thoughts because I spent too much time “reading about AI yesterday.”

“Oh, what were you reading?” he asked back, genuinely interested in my peril.

“Heh. Well, I guess I wasn’t actually reading but watching youtube videos,” I replied, ashamed of myself.

This, however, was not met with scorn from the young barista but an acknowledgment that youtube and reading are essentially the same thing. He then asked which channels, which I again had no idea how to reply because when you’re just doom hopping on youtube you’re not really paying close attention to the people behind the content.

“Well, she writes about economics but this one wasn’t really about that—” I rambled, attempting to salvage my dignity in this moment.

“—Kyla?” he asked confidently.

Holy shit. Indeed it was a Kyla Scanlon video Why We Don’t Trust Each Other Anymore I’d watched which kicked off my spiral into AI doomerism (more on this video later—again, them’s the rules!). It’s remarkable to me how much youtube has become a main vehicle of communication in our world both for mindless time-suck gibberish and highbrow philosophical economics theory.

…

But this post isn’t about all that, it’s about how this Van Neistat video (linked below), which I watched (in the background) while trying (and failing) to get photo editing done, really struck a nerve. I feel I’m guilty of abandoning projects or simply not even beginning them largely because I too often have an issue giving myself a deadline or admitting a project is good enough to call it a wrap. This video was helpful in examining this mindset and I like how Van approaches his art even though it’s far too rigid for me to be able to implement myself — says the guy with a daily photo blog. Okay, well, at least I’m making an attempt to implement some rules around here.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can achieve excellence.”

— Vince Lombardi

Anyway, back to the photo editing. Enjoy the video.

-Clayton

2024 03 03

Night street scene. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Now that we’re a few months into this blog, I’m thinking I don’t love the way things look on a desktop. The images are often too big, esp when vertical, to display fully and the text still has the issue of paragraph breaks displaying as line breaks without the extra bit of spacing to let them breath. I have no idea why (I think it’s a Squarespace bug) but these two issues have me thinking I should do a little visual reworking.

If you have any thoughts, I’d love to hear them below … in the comments … which you can only see when you view the specific blog entry page, not on the homepage index.

Yeah, design changes.

-Clayton

2024 03 02

An outtake from my “Keep it 100” portrait sessions. Chicago, Illinois. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

AI sources its “inspiration” from existing imagery. They grab millions, if not billions, of images and feed them into a massive neural computer network. Many, if not most, of the images are made by artists with no interest in training a computer model. Some of the images are illegal. Child pornography that got sucked into the system in the corporate drive to automate systems to train other systems on the biggest pool of imagery possible.

What interests me is what happens in 5-10 years when (if?) most content is AI generated. It will become a Digital Doom Loop of artificial reality. AI systems training themselves on artificial material made by other AI systems ad infinitum. Language will shift based on what the computers interpret to be language. If we can’t understand the computers, we’ll lose our grip on them, so we’ll be forced to bend to their automated will.

Anyway, have a nice weekend.

-Clayton

The video on the left was one of ~20 shared by OpenAI in its announcement of Sora, its text-to-video generator. It claims the video was, as this viral tweet notes, "generated by Sora."

The video on the left is from Shutterstock, with whom OpenAI has a partnership. https://t.co/QobhX01FJf pic.twitter.com/wp968R2WLy

— Brian Merchant (@bcmerchant) February 16, 2024

2024 03 01

Wow, it’s been a lot of vertical images lately… Txa Txa Supper Club #30 at See You Soon Chicago. January, 2024. © Clayton Hauck

Tyler Perry is a billionaire and massively successful filmmaker. This is why, when he recently announced he’s pausing plans to expand his Atlanta studio because of AI, people listened.

➡️ Tyler Perry Puts $800M Studio Expansion on Hold After Seeing OpenAI’s Sora: “Jobs Are Going to Be Lost”

I saw a wide range of responses to the headline online, from AI bros proclaiming movies will soon be fully automated, to others upset he’s not investing a billion dollars into a film studio as a way to combat the rise of AI. Regardless of what you think about the headline, my guess is that the reality of his decision to halt work after surely spending millions of dollars on the project was made more for exesting economic reasons than because Sora released a few automated videos that look like a high end video game render. These AI videos, released only by the company that is producing the renders (and surely only gives us the best of the best), do look quite remarkable at a glance, on a phone, in low resolution — and yes, it clearly shows where things are heading — but I also don’t think we’re going to fully automate away our arts and entertainment despite it sort of feeling like this is where we are heading.

Currently, the AI stories making the headlines are how good it is at making photos, videos, writing stories, graphic design, etc … all the fun and creative things humans enjoy doing. What’s less exciting to read about is how AI can replace the less glamorous professions such as tax preparation, legal copyrighting, software coding, logistics.

There’s no doubt in my mind that AI is coming for all of us and will massively transform the world in the coming decade (if not this year). Just look at the NVIDIA stock price and you’ll see this is what the stock market believes. I think the AI revolution (a new Industrial Revolution) is already transforming corporate America in less obvious ways: namely employee headcount. Corporations are letting go and/or pausing hiring as they figure out all the ways to best implement AI into their corporate structure while replacing as many humans possible. The economy still feels relatively okay, but a storm is a brewin’. These changes aren’t yet mainstream news stories but I think soon everyone will start to feel the effects of someone they know losing a job because it is, at least attempting to be, outsourced to artificial intelligence.

Scott Galloway put out a nice piece (linked below) equating the corporate use of AI to the human use of diet drugs. We all do it, we just don’t like to talk about it.

➡️ Corporate Ozempic

I just wish I could automate a way to not think about AI so damn much these days.

-Clayton

PS - want to dig into this even further and get even more depressed? This video is worth your time and paints a largely bleak picture about our not-too-distant futures

PPS - My CPU is a neural net processor; a learning computer!

2024 02 29

Wintry street scene on my block in Chicago’s Logan Square neighborhood. January, 2024 © Clayton Hauck

I’m going to become a photographer!

The real estate business is not what it used to be. It used to be that houses were tough to build and required years of training, expensive equipment, knowledge of a labyrinth of legal rules and regulations. These days, anyone can build a house with ease. Cheap tools from China and ample materials from our lax environmental laws have allowed houses to be made almost instantly and posted on social networks for anyone to bid on. The supply and demand has shifted greatly, meaning my compensation on each transaction is nearly zero. Basically, the only way to make a living as a real estate agent these days is to become an influencer, sell courses, convince new people to get their license and charge them for lessons, or to get a TV deal and turn your entire life into “content.”

It’s because of this that I’ve decided to pivot my career, buy a camera, and become a professional photographer! The possibilities are endless! I can photograph headshots, weddings, parties, babies, houses (lol), food, cars, etc. People truly need photos of everything these days and “content is king” they tell me, which means the supply and demand economics are more in my favor so long as I’m providing my clients with top notch work. I’m confident I can do this because my friend took a photography class in high school and I often helped with her projects. I’m also really getting into learning from the many photographers on YouTube who reveal all of their methods for free. 

Please tell your friends and family I am now available for assignments worldwide. If you’ve bought a house from me previously, I will hook you up with 20% off your first portrait or family session! Just use promo code #OLDCLIENTNEWFRIEND20

-Clayton

PS- happy Leap Year!

2024 02 28

Rusty old car I’ve been photographing for well over a year now because it never moves and nature is slowly reclaiming. Chicago, Illinois. February, 2024 © Clayton Hauck

Having something to look forward to is a big part of my being in a good mood. Is this blog something to look forward to?

Constraints are a big part of creativity. Forcing one to figure it out often leads to better work. Big budget movies are often crappy… because they had budget to do whatever they want! Decisions were made without much consideration. It’s easier to make something good out of nothing than it is to make something good out of everything… the guerrilla approach. The underdog often has more motivation and is scrappier. America can’t defeat Afghanistan; America can’t defeat Vietnam; America can’t defeat Palestine not because we lack the resources but because we lack the will (and also they are undefined, losing battles to begin with). The only reason we attempt these wars in the United States is because we have too many options, therefore they sound like reasonable solutions.

Why did I segue into talking about war again? Let’s get back to obsessing over AI taking my job! Oh yeah, so this is why I’m in a crabby mood these days.

Chin up.

-Clayton