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Everyoneisfamous.com tells the story of Chicago's nightlife scene one photo at a time.

Tuesday Apr 01, 2008.     By Maya Henderson

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If you live in Chicago and have a Myspace or Facebook account, you've most likely seen the work of Clayton Hauck. The 25-year-old immortalizes Chicago's youthful nightlife scene, capturing candid moments of ecstatic DJ bliss, awkward drunken posing, superstar DJs and wannabe celebrities for his photo blog, everyoneisfamous.com.

Working a job as a video editor at a production company a few years ago, Hauck was surfing the net and discovered The Cobra Snake, which is considered the original nightlife photo blog. He immediately wondered why there wasn't anything like it in Chicago and began shooting around the city.

"I always had a camera on me, so I just decided to start shooting," says Hauck, who didn't really get into photography until his freshmen year at Columbia College. "Now there's dozens of [photo blogs] but I was the first to have an actual website that was updated regularly."

His first-ever posting involved images from Continental's opening party; today, Everyone is Famous has almost 30,000 photos. The blog has led to paying gigs, too. He now works full-time as a freelance photographer, shooting for various publications and websites.

He's also dabbling in throwing parties; his most recent, Claychella, was a free, 15-hour DJ blowout at Tuman's in Ukrainian Village.

"My website is a good promotional tool and a lot of people know about it, so it's a natural transition to go from the website to doing parties," he says. "My motivation is to do things for the city, to make it a little better."

Hauck has become quite the scenester and local celebrity himself, but he's not content with just being the cool guy with a camera at the party. "Everyone is Famous has always been my portal for getting better and pushing myself to become a better photographer," he says. "I guess on the larger scale, I'd like to see myself go on to bigger and better things—more exposure for my photography and doing interesting and creative work that people recognize and respect."

What's your favorite hidden gem?
I'm always interested in discovering them, especially little dive bars that no one knows about. I've been really into this pace Rose's, near Depaul. It has so much history.

Best Chicago-related advice you've ever received?
Go to Hot Doug's.

Favorite party or nightclub to shoot?
I get asked this question a lot. I don't have a specific place; it all depends on the vibe of the night.

Where do you hang when not shooting for the blog?
One of the 100 dive bars in this town with cheap drinks. Happy Village is one of my favorites.

What's something about you that we don't know that we should?
I use to be a huge roller coaster nerd.

Look for your 15 minutes of fame at everyoneisfamous.com.