Steve Hauck is what some may call a renaissance man. A photographer, journalist, creative, reporter, marketer, husband, father and so much more. Throughout his career, he has captured the news and beauty of this world through the click of a camera and has impacted so many people with his work. His love for photography dates back to the 1970s when he was the high school at Wichita West High School in Wichita, Kansas. One of his friends suggested that he get involved with taking pictures for the yearbook and newspaper, which led him to take a number of journalism and cinematography classes in high school.
Eventually, he came out of college with a degree in radio and TV film as well as a minor in journalism. This degree gave him a job as a television news photographer and reporter for a decade in Wichita and Oklahoma City, and eventually became the chief news photographer of the NBC affiliate in Oklahoma City. From there his skills won him several journalism and photography awards. His journey to success involved ups and downs as well as being challenged for his work not being good enough. Steve took this as a challenge and worked so hard all the way to winning awards. He credits a lot of his success to his three tremendous mentors: Steve Harper, Larry Hatteberg and Darrell Barton. In the late 80s, he left television and entered the field of marketing where he currently works as the business liaison for the city of Shawnee, Kansas.
When the digital era of cameras began, Steve rediscovered his passion as a photographer. In 2008, he began refining his skills and got back into the game. To this day he is still working on his skills and keeps up with photography as a hobby of his. Steve recalled photography to be a creative outlet for him, which is why it turned into a passion of his. He said, “I’m not inherently a very creative person, other than when I have a camera in my hands.” During his career, he captured phenomenal moments in time that encapsulate you into that experience. He resonates with the feeling of recognition for his work but beyond that “being creative is one thing, feeling like they resonate with someone is certainly something more.”
Steve’s company, Videre stands for the Latin word to see. His inspiration for choosing this specific name came from the idea that “in photography, you see things that maybe other people don’t.” If you look at all the great photographers, like Ansal Adams or Henri Cartier, they saw things in moments of time. Similarly, Steve captures a moment in time or as he likes to call it “a slice of time.” To him, a photograph is a slice of time that can never be seen again than in that moment unless it is captured. There was one specific photo that Steve spoke about, the infamous lawn chair photo. He passed by a row of old lawn chairs every single day taking his kids to school but waiting till the Summer Solstice to take the picture because they were on the north side of the building. He explained how he could have taken those photos any day that he drove his kids to school but he waited because he knew that when the sun was on them, that would make for a much stronger photo. He applies this approach to the rest of his photography to make sure that he is working the image to give it the justice it deserves. This approach has won him many awards, curated beautiful pieces and captured moments in a way no one else could see them.
One of Steve’s favorite photos that he’s taken is called “Park and Ride.” This photo is yet again a slice in time and captures the top of a parking garage and in the foreground is a street sign for a parking garage that says park. It’s one of his favorites because he had to work hard to get it. “I think the image is really strong. There’s motion in it, and again, the parking garage is now apartments and the bus station is now an office building so none of that exists anymore in its original form,” said Steve. This goes to prove his slice of time approach because you never know when a scene might change and what used to be there is no longer. He wants “people to see the world around them and to understand that things are changing and things that they see today may not always be there.” As a nation, we’re constantly changing so he wants to remind people to enjoy the things that they see as they are, and then welcome the changes that come that make our culture better. Because things will change.”