The MOOD Podcast
Matt Jacob
<p><b><em>The MOOD Podcast </em></b>is a long-form conversation series exploring photography, creativity, identity, and the inner life of artists. Hosted by <b><em>Matt Jacob,</em></b> the show moves beyond technique and trends to examine why people make work, how creative voices are formed, and what it takes to sustain a meaningful artistic life.</p><p><br></p><p>Through thoughtful, unhurried conversations with photographers, filmmakers, and creative thinkers from around the world, the podcast explores themes of process, mental health, ethics, purpose, legacy, and the tension between art and industry. Episodes are grounded, reflective, and often philosophical, offering listeners provocation of thought rather than formulaic answers to copy.</p><p><br></p><p>The MOOD Podcast is less about instruction and more about understanding, aimed at emerging and established creatives who care not just about what they make, but why they make it. </p><p><br></p><p>At its core, The MOOD Podcast is <em>the art of conversation, one frame at a time.</em></p><p><br></p><p><b><em>Watch on YouTube: </em></b>https://www.youtube.com/@mattyj_ay</p><p><b><em>Instagram: </em></b>@the_moodpodcast /@mattyj_ay</p><p><b><em>Website:</em></b> https://themoodpodcast.com.</p>
Recent Episodes
20 episodesStop Explaining Your Photographs - Moments of Mood, 3.9
In this Moments of Mood episode, I get into the question of whether we as photographers should explain our images or let them try and ‘speak for themselves’, why the readings you want to correct are actually a map to your photographic voice, and the two gaps every photograph has to cross, from Garry Winogrand's famous riddle to a passage in 'Art & Fear' by David Bayles and Ted Orland that reframes the distance between what you intended, what you made, and what people see.Other things I mention:The moment someone misreads your photo and the correction rises up in your chestWhy you're the one person who can't see your own work coldRepeated "wrong" readings as a pattern, not noiseWhat happens if both gaps close completely, and whether a perfect photograph would be worth looking atExplaining an image versus articulating a body of work, and why timing is the differenceMessage me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Why Your Photos Are Boring - Photographer David Chancellor Explains...
On this episode, I sat down with David Chancellor, the award-winning documentary photographer behind ‘Hunters’, ‘Handle Like Eggs’, and the Taylor Wessing Prize-winning portrait ‘Huntress with Buck’, for a conversation about the moral grey areas of documentary photography, trophy hunting, wildlife conservation. David has spent decades photographing human-wildlife coexistence across Africa, sleeping beside trophy hunters for weeks at a time, documenting leopard hunting in Namibia that was later stopped, and turning the personal cost of that work, including the collapse of his marriage, into his most intimate project. We talked about how beauty gets people to look at what they'd rather turn away from, why access matters more than gear, how a photographer builds trust over years instead of parachuting in, and his current project rewilding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the National Center for Wildlife.Watch this conversation and you'll understand how just one photograph can open a dialogue that could end an questionable pastime, and what it costs the person holding the camera.Other things we discussed:Getting fired from foreign exchange dealing and talking his way into photography school with "below average" workThe lion breeder who learned to see light and made the phone call behind the Taylor Wessing photoIf it pays, it stays: the brutal economics of wildlife conservationThe gamekeeper in Scotland whose hands kill deer and delivered his own sonWhether he has gone numb after decades of watching animals diePhotographing the birth, death, and compensation politics of community conservation in KenyaDavid Attenborough, his front door key, and the cost of a legendary lifeFilm versus digital, the Mamiya 7, and why he shoots one consistent formatAI, authenticity, and what photography loses when everything becomes contentFind David and his work online:https://www.davidchancellor.com/https://www.instagram.com/chancellordavid/Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
One Photograph Is All You Get Now, and Why That's Good News for Photographers - Moments of Mood, 3.8
Attention has collapsed, and every photographer feels it. In this Moments of Mood episode, I make the case that this might be the best thing to happen to serious photography in a generation. You'll learn why the photographers who matter from here on won't be the ones who make the most, they'll be the ones who compress the best: one photograph dense enough to stop a stranger mid-scroll and earn the second look. I break down what has actually broken in visual culture (the capacity to stay, not the capacity to look), why posting more is a hiding place, and how a single ambassador image is the doorway that gets your photobook, sequence, and body of work found.___________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Odette England Answers Every Photographer's Worst Fear, E126
Odette England makes her photographs and then damages them, and this conversation is about why that is the most honest thing she has ever done with her voice.Odette is an Australian artist, writer and photography professor at Rhode Island School of Design and Brown University, whose latest book Isn't X Beautiful is an autobiographical reckoning with family, memory and the limits of what a photograph can hold.We talk about growing up on a 200 acre dairy farm in rural South Australia where her father made Polaroid portraits of newborn calves for their birth certificates and her mother typed captions into family albums, and how those 2 modes of picture keeping shaped everything she has made since. We go into her definition of beauty, which is broken, rusty and forlorn rather than pretty, the year she asked her elderly parents to walk their lost farm with her negatives strapped to the soles of their shoes, why she believes photography is drenched in want, and what writing gives her that photography cannot.Odette talks openly about doubt, about being the least confident person in her own practice, about the drawers of failed work she now calls her box of potentials, and about the daily sentence habit that turned into something she never intended. We finish inside the critique room, on the questions she asks photographers who bring her work they cannot yet explain.Other things we discussed:Being refused entry to her school darkroom because she was a girlBeing the only woman in her classWhy the letter X sits at the centre of her book, and why the title ends in an exclamation markThe 170 English words for the act of seeingThe folly of memory, wrong captions, and choosing to remember the fictionHer image-based retelling of Susan Sontag's On PhotographyWhy she thinks moving forward is not always the right next stepWhat she sees in students of every age that worries her mostFind Odette on her website and Instagram:https://www.odetteengland.comhttps://www.instagram.com/odetteengland___________________________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
How To Find Your Voice Without Building a Signature Style - Moments of Mood, 3.7
In this Moments of Mood episode I sit with a single photograph from my own archive, one I made by accident in under ten seconds, and use it to unpack an idea Cristina Mittermeier gave me: that the photographer is not a messenger but a membrane, a semi-permeable skin whose job is to let a conversation pass between the subject and the stranger who will one day stand in front of the print. I look at why the pressure to have a signature style is muting your photography, why your creative voice is not a possession you transmit but the shape of what you let through, and how ego, not lack of talent, is what fragments an emerging photographer's work.There's a version of your portfolio where every frame is competent, consistent, technically strong, and somehow says nothing, and if you already know which images I mean, this episode is about why that happens and what your voice actually is instead.I also get into the book launch that turned Cristina from marine biologist into one of the most seen photographers alive, why technically flawless photographs can be strangely silent, the unnamed photographer whose prints sell the man rather than the animal, the division of labor between vanishing inside the frame and showing up loudly outside it, why a style can be copied by a preset pack while permeability cannot, and a one-frame practice to try this week.______________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Trent Davis Bailey: Every Photographer Hits The Wrong Notes Before Finding Their Voice, E124
Trent Davis Bailey spent 7 years photographing a remote farming valley in Colorado, convinced he was making documentary work. He wasn't. The pictures knew before he did: he was searching for the family he'd lost to a twenty-year estrangement, and by the end of The North Fork he had found his aunt, his cousins, and the woman who became his wife. Then he turned the camera toward something far harder. His new photobook Son Pictures, published by Chose Commune, reckons with the crash of United Flight 232, the disaster that killed his mother when he was 3 years old, through his own photographs, family snapshots, newspaper archives, and the eerily premonitory artworks his mother made as a girl, including a drawing of a plane falling from the sky, made decades before she boarded one.This is a conversation for any photographer who has ever suspected their work is about something they haven't admitted yet. We follow how a photography project becomes a mirror, how a photobook gets edited and sequenced when your heart is too close to the pictures, and how grief, memory and image-making feed each other over a decade of work.Other things we discussed:Being tied to a tree for his first ever photographs, and why he's glad the negatives were destroyedThe camera as a passport for a shy kid, and photography as a search for belongingWhy he hides many of his subjects' faces, and the 4-foot constraint that shaped The North ForkEditing 60 pictures down to 46 with Trespasser, and handing his grief to the right publisherRebecca Solnit's essay, walking as a way of seeing, and why "capture" is the wrong word for photographyWatching a Hollywood reenactment of the crash at 7 years old, and how cinema colonises memoryBecoming a father, and the New York Times op-ed that revealed what Son Pictures was really aboutHumor as an antidote to grief, and protecting play inside the heaviest workRobert Adams, reusing photographs across books, and what follows a decade-long projectFind Trent’s work here:https://trentdavisbailey.comhttps://www.instagram.com/trentdavisbailey/______________________________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
The One Skill That Actually Makes Photography Beautiful (It's Not Composition) - Moments of Mood, 3.6
In this episode you'll discover why beauty in photography is made by your attention, not found in your subjects, and how reading your own form reveals the photographic voice you've been searching for elsewhere.In this Moments of Mood, I sit with one idea from my recent conversation with photographer and writer Tim Carpenter: that beauty in a photograph is form, not subject matter. Drawing on Robert Adams' book ‘Beauty in Photography’ and Tim's book ‘To Photograph Is to Learn How to Die’, I unpack what form actually is, why we have a bodily response to it, and how the way you meet the world is pressed invisibly into every frame you make. If you're an emerging photographer struggling to find your voice or make cohesive work, this one reframes where beauty, and your signature, actually live.Other things we discussed:Why photographs of beautiful subjects can still feel emptyTim Carpenter's confession about being subject matter driven early in his careerRobert Adams on form as an answer to the fear that life is chaosWhy the most moving photographs hold together barely, not perfectlyHow your body decides the photograph before you doMindfulness and attention as trainable photographic skillsA practical assignment for photographing the most ordinary place in your life_______________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
The Inner Voice That Stops You Taking the Photo And Lies to Every Photographer, with Rory King - E122
If you have ever felt technically capable but creatively lost, this conversation shows you how one photographer turned a decade of pictures, and the hardest years of his life, into a body of work that is unmistakably his own.In this episode I sit down with Rory King, an Australian photographer who works in black and white, prints by hand in the darkroom, and turned 10 years of images into his photobook 'Gumsucker', published by Charcoal Press after he won the 2023 Charcoal Publishing Prize at the Chico Review. We talk about how photography found him, the darkroom as an emotional practice, his mental health struggles that nearly ended his life, and what it actually takes to find your own photographic voice.Other things we discussed:Why he refuses to scan film and prints everything by handPhotographing the same friends for over 10 yearsHanding close to 2,000 scans to his publisher and not seeing Gumsucker until years laterThe bushrangers and Ned Kelly project he first presented at ChicoWhether the photography and publishing world is elitist and gatekeptHow to share your work and find communityThe role of family, friends, and sad music in his recoveryMomentum, and why taking the picture matters more than the picture itselfRory's links:www.roryking.netwww.instagram.com/kingroary_____________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
What Koudelka's Photos Show Photographers About Finding Their Voice in the Age of AI - Moments of Mood, 3.5
In this solo episode of Moments of Mood, you'll learn why the flood of AI images is about to make real, human photography more valuable, not less, and how to find the voice that's unmistakably yours.I break down what AI really means for emerging photographers, starting with VSCO's "your eye can't be generated" campaign and the paradox that the same company also builds the AI tools and sells the reassurance back to you.Drawing on Josef Koudelka's legendary photographs, the "revenge of the humanities," and his own work in a disappearing place, I argue that the crisis was/is never AI, it was handing the verdict on your work to everything outside yourself, and that scarcity, taste, and lived experience are about to become a photographer's most valuable assets.Other touch points in this commentary:Why your photography voice feels fragmented, and the real reason behind itThe 2am fear that your eye might be "ordinary"Why a machine can render anything but can't be the witnessWhat an AI company founder says about the value of the humanitiesThe single reflection to find the one photograph that's truly yours_________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Why Photographer Ridwan Didot Asks Every Artist "What's Wrong With You?", E120
In this episode you'll learn how to tell whether your photography is actually art, why chasing technical perfection is holding your work back, and how to develop a photographic voice that's unmistakably your own.This week Matt chats with Ridwan Didot, a fine art documentary and wedding photographer from Indonesia who runs the studio Native Visual and approaches commercial work with the eye and patience of a documentarian.We get into one of the oldest debates in photography, whether there's such a thing as photography that is art and photography that isn't, and where that line actually sits. Ridwan shares why a photograph that still works in 50 years matters more than one that just looks good today, how 6 years photographing his own grandparents trained his eye more than any client job, and why he believes copying another photographer, or even copying your own past work, is genuinely impossible.This is a conversation about intention, sensitivity, function over aesthetics, and the slow work of finding a creative voice that's truly yours.Other things we discussed:Why your mother's old family photos might teach you more than any workshopThe "demolition" theory of creativity: learning to construct a photo so you can destroy itWhat Rick Rubin's The Creative Act gets right about making work without needing approvalHow Diane Arbus reframed the relationship between the subject and the photographWhy insecurity, used honestly, can be a tool rather than a weaknessAlfred Adler, the "neutral position", and how psychology shapes the photographerThe Photographer's Playbook and the danger of photographing feelings badlyWhy the love and care you put into a frame is visible in the final imageThe one question Ridwan asks every artist he meetsRidwan's profile: https://www.instagram.com/ridwandidot/___________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Your Body Decides the Photograph Before You Do - Photographer Tim Carpenter, E119
Matt sits down with photographer, writer, and educator Tim Carpenter, author of 'To Photograph Is to Learn How to Die' and photobooks such as 'Local Objects', 'Little' and 'Christmas Day, Bucks Pond Road', for a deep conversation on the philosophy beneath the photographic image. In this episode you will learn a way to understand why the form of a photograph, not its subject, is where its meaning and beauty actually live, and how working with a camera can teach you to make peace with a world that will never bend to your wishes.We explore the 'broken self' and the gap between the real and the ideal, why form is everything that is not in front of the camera, the difference between the depicted and the detected, how the body and the camera move through the world as a single instrument, why beauty in a photograph is a fleeting moment of equilibrium, and how a photographer can build a meaningful body of work and a real audience without chasing scale.Other things we discussed:Why great art resists interpretation, and the ethics of meeting a subject as something singularThe exposure test that reveals whether you truly care about formHow Tim moved from being subject-matter driven to understanding structureReading his own emotional distance in the photographs of Local ObjectsThe pinned butterfly problem in portrait photographyWhat Robert Adams wrote in a two-page handwritten letterWhy Susan Sontag and Roland Barthes may not help working photographersThe anti-solipsism machine, and how the camera refuses your projectionsThe loss behind Bucks Pond Road and the books that became a loose trilogyWhy you do not need a big audience to make work that mattersTim's links:Website: https://www.timcarpenterphotography.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/timcarpenter___________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Zahra Ciardi - The True Self, Limiting Beliefs & Why Photographers Crave Validation, E118
Matt talks with psychologist Zahra Ciardi, founder of Ascendant Bali, to explore the inner life of the creative person: why so many photographers feel their work isn't truly theirs, the limiting beliefs that keep artists stuck, and how to put your work into the world without being ruled by validation.By the end of this episode you'll understand why your photography stops feeling like yours, and what it takes to create from your true self instead of your need to be seen.Zahra works in trauma recovery and peak performance, and she breaks down the psychology of high achievers, the anatomy of avoidance, the inner critic, and how childhood shapes the way we create as adults.Other things discussed:The "bus" model of the self and why the inner critic ends up drivingHighly sensitive people and why creatives feel everything so intenselyOver-diagnosis, self-diagnosis, and the bigger problem of under-treatmentSelf-neutrality as the realistic first step before self-loveGraded exposure for photographers afraid to share their workUsing social media intentionally instead of being used by itWhether healing costs you your creative edgeHow childhood memory is stored in the body, not just the mindThe single values exercise Zahra says works every timeZahra's links:www.ascendantbali.comwww.zahraciardi.comhttps://www.instagram.com/zahra_ciardi/____________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Cristina Mittermeier Explains Why Being A Good Photographer Isn't Enough Anymore, E117
Cristina Mittermeier is a National Geographic photographer, co-founder of SeaLegacy, and author of "Hope." Her work has been featured in National Geographic's series "Photographer" and in publications around the world. Cristinais the photographer who coined the term "conservation photography," co-founded SeaLegacy, and made the starving polar bear image seen by an estimated 2.5 billion people. In this episode Matt and Cristina discuss how to find your photographic voice that actually means something, why a point of view separates an artist from a craftsman, and the one principle Cristina has built her life around: to show up.- Join the Mood Insiders for ad-free extended episodes, monthly masterclasses, the weekly book club, and much more (link in notes below) - Other things you will take away from this episode:The "glorious amateur" and why expertise is not a prerequisite for meaningful photographyThe full story behind the starving polar bear photograph and the backlash that followedHow the social media algorithm punishes beautiful and important photographyThe idea of the photographer as a "membrane" rather than a messengerWhy storytelling now matters more than the photograph itself"Enoughness" as a personal answer to consumerismBuilding a real portfolio of physical work instead of living on InstagramA personal handbook of ethics for photographersWhy AI will make human-made photography more valuable, not lessLegacy, ego, and shedding the need to be exceptionalSeaLegacy and the next decade of conservation photographyPractical advice for emerging photographers starting out today____Cristina’s platforms:Website - https://www.cristinamittermeier.com/Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mitty/SeaLegacy - https://www.sealegacy.org/____Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
The One Question That Helped Rich-Joseph Facun Find His Photographic Voice, E116
In this episode, Matt sits down with Rich-Joseph Facun, a celebrated American documentary photographer, former photojournalist of 15 years, and founder of the independent publishing imprint Liars Corner. In this conversation we discuss his three monographs: Black Diamonds, Little Cities, and 1804, the ethics of street and portrait photography, photographing strangers in Trump-era Appalachia, walking away from photojournalism, finding your photographic voice, and why the global photo book industry urgently needs more marginalised and Indigenous voices.Other things we discussed:Street portraiture, approaching strangers, and consent in documentary photographyGrowing up in a Southern Baptist military family and door-to-door evangelism as training for portrait workPhotographing Trump-supporting Appalachia as a person of colour with a trans childThe viral portrait of a stranger with a damaged forehead tattoo crying on the streetQuitting photojournalism after 15 years and the identity crisis that followedWhy he stopped using Rembrandt lighting and the decisive moment in his portrait workHow to find your photographic voice after mastering the craftSelf-publishing a photo book vs pitching to independent publishersThe making of Black Diamonds, Little Cities, and 1804Launching Liars Corner as an Indigenous-owned photo book imprint in AppalachiaElitism, gatekeeping, and barriers to entry inside the global photo book publishing industryMentoring emerging documentary photographers and funding their first monographsWhy awards, accolades, and staff photographer positions stopped matteringRich-Joseph FacunInstagram: https://instagram.com/facunWebsite: https://facun.comImprint: https://liarscorner.press____________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Pricing, Prestige & The Business Of Photography - Miriam Schulman, E115
In this episode, Matt sits down with Miriam Schulman, professional artist, art business coach, host of the Inspiration Place podcast, and bestselling author of Artpreneur (HarperCollins). Miriam left Wall Street after 9/11 to build a six-figure art business and now teaches photographers, painters, and visual artists how to price their work, sell art online, attract collectors, and build a sustainable photography business without relying on social media. In this conversation we cover photography pricing strategies, how to sell prints at higher prices, the psychology behind luxury art buyers, why charm pricing kills photography sales, how photographers can find art collectors, the truth about Instagram engagement rates for artists, AI's impact on professional photography, and how to transition from hobbyist photographer to full-time professional. So if you are learning how to make money as a photographer, how to price photography prints, or how to build a photography business in 2026, this episode delivers the frameworks Miriam uses with her six-figure photography and art coaching clients.Other things we discussed:How to price photography prints using prestige pricing instead of charm pricingThe belief triad every photographer needs to sell high-ticket printsSignal excavation: how photographers find their unique artistic voiceHow to build an email list as a photographer (and why it beats Instagram)The $40 champagne pricing study and what it means for photography salesAI and photography: why photographers face more risk than paintersLinkedIn for photographers: the most underused platform for selling artHow to use local press and PR to sell photography printsThe five biggest mistakes photographers make when pricing their workHow to identify a production problem vs a pricing problem in your photography businessWhy marketing matters most when you believe your photography mattersThe wishy-washy pricing mistake that loses photographers paid bookingsFind Miriam and everything she offers on her website:https://www.schulmanart.com/_______________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
The Psychological Trap Quietly Destroying Your Photography - Moments of Mood 3.4
In this Moments of Mood episode of The MOOD Podcast, Matt returns after a road accident left him physically immobilised for several weeks, unable to photograph, travel, or work, and uses that enforced stillness to examine one of the quietest but most destructive reflexes in modern photography: the need for proof. What happens to your photography, and to you as a photographer, when the images you make never leave the hard drive? When the algorithm stops rewarding your work? When self-doubt creeps in because no one has seen the photograph yet? Matt draws on a recent conversation with fellow photographer Pie Aerts, a decade-long meditation practice, and the uncomfortable weeks spent away from the camera, to ask whether photography is a destination we're trying to arrive at, or a pilgrimage we're already walking without realising it. _____________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Mark Power - 14 Years Photographing America, The Democracy of Photography & Why Stillness Matters More Than The Decisive Moment, E114
In this episode, Matt sits down with Magnum photographer Mark Power for a wide-ranging conversation about long-term documentary photography, creative process, and what it means to spend 14 years photographing America as a foreigner. Mark discusses the origins of his landmark five-volume series 'Good Morning, America', why he's drawn to photographing the ordinary and overlooked rather than the spectacular, and how a woman quietly crying at a Don McCullin exhibition changed the trajectory of his entire career. From nearly quitting photography to becoming one of the most respected members of Magnum Photos, Mark shares honest reflections on self-doubt, creative longevity, and the discipline of looking slowly in a fast world.Other things we discussed:Why photography is more democratic than painting and what that means for artists todayThe moment Mark's father finally validated his career, just before his deathHow the Postcards from America project at Magnum evolved into a decade-long obsessionWhy Mark believes the most exciting subjects make the worst photographsHis thoughts on the word "storytelling" and why he thinks it's lost all meaningThe stillness and silence he deliberately pursues in every imageWalking into a room of his heroes at Chico Review and expecting nobody to know his nameWhy he spends far more time looking at photographs than making themEditing and sequencing five books as a work in progress without knowing the endingWhat's next: photographing Brighton by bus pass and an ambitious new project in ChinaMessage me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Chico Review, part 2 - What a Portfolio Review Taught Me About My Photography (That 10 Years Didn't)
Listen to part one hereWatch part one here________________________In Part 2 of this special Chico Review 2026 episode, Matt continues documenting his week inside one of photography's most respected portfolio review events. Featuring conversations with Odette England, Daniel Arnold, Tim Carpenter, Matthew Genitempo, Jesse Lenz, and Lindokuhle Sobekwa — plus fellow attendees pushing the edges of documentary, photobook, and fine art photography.Notable topics:What Jesse Lenz actually looks for as a publisher — and why finished work is a turn-offDaniel Arnold on 13 years protecting his creative spark and why he dreads making booksTim Carpenter's review philosophy: never say good picture or bad pictureOdette England on slow processing and what makes her eyes change during a reviewMatt Genitempo's approach to giving reviews and spotting talentThe broken economic models of editorial, photobooks, and commercial photography"Commercial documentary" as a survival strategy for photojournalistsHow feedback on "poetry vs narrative" shifted one attendee's entire practiceA photographer who enrolled in photojournalism school at 48 after surviving cancerGrief, bookmaking as chemistry lab, and dismantling perfectionismClosing reflection on ego death, creative identity, and thinking about a project like musicWhy the shutter is only 10% of the work — and what happens afterPractical advice for future Chico attendees: go deep, not wideListen to part one hereListen to part one hereWatch part one here________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Chico Review 2026 - part 1: Why Feedback Beats 10,000 Followers
The Chico Review destroyed my confidence. Then built it back...THIS IS PART 1 OF A 2 PART FEATURE ON CHICO REVIEW 2026 - SEE PART 2 NEXT WEEK.I arrived at the Chico Review 2026 thinking my work was ready. 10 formal reviews, 25 reviewers and speakers, publishers, curators, photographers and more — I was scrapping half of it by the end of day one. This is the first installment of 2, about my honest experience on what happened, what I learned, and why I'd do it all again without hesitation.In this video:What the Chico Review actually is (and who it's for)My 10 portfolio reviews: the breakthroughs, the brutal moments, and the one that made me cryWhy cohesion matters more than individual imagesHow the week changed my approach to sequencing, editing, and book-makingWhat my project looks like now vs. what I brought to the table on day 1.About the Chico Review:The Chico Review is an annual photography portfolio review held in Chico Hot Springs, Montana. 80 photographers. Reviewers from Magnum, L'Artier, TIS Books, Deadbeat Club, Tresspasser, SFMOMA, The New Yorker, and many more. 6 days of formal reviews, informal conversations, and everything in between. It's one of the most respected portfolio review events in the world — and one of the most humbling.If you're a photographer questioning your work, your direction, or whether feedback is worth seeking — this one's for you.PART 2 DROPS NEXT WEEK — subscribe so you don't miss it. And for more deep, reflective photography conversations in the meantime, subscribe to The MOOD Podcast 🎙️---📸 https://mattjacob.co🎙️ https://themoodpodcast.com📷 @mattyj_ay📷 @the_moodpodcastMessage me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay
Every Photo Is a Crime Scene - Brad Zellar on How He Reads Photography and Inspects an Image, E111
In this episode of The MOOD Podcast, I sit down with writer Brad Zellar, whose deep relationship to photography, photo books, storytelling, and visual culture makes this one of the most thought-provoking conversations I’ve had on the show. We talk about the future of photography, why obsession matters more than concept, the role of text in photo books, what makes an image unforgettable, how portfolio reviewers really think, and why the internet may be training a generation not to care about art in the same way.Other things we discussed:Brad’s childhood in a small working-class town and the library that changed his lifeThe photo books that first opened up the world for himWhy boredom, curiosity, and challenge shaped his creative mindHis collaborations with Alec Soth and how words and images can work togetherWhat he looks for in photography portfolio reviews and artist statementsWhy some photo projects feel alive and others feel forcedThe difference between a strong print and a strong book editWhy poetry rarely works inside photo booksThe collapse of journalism and why Brad is more hopeful about photography than writingThe danger of fake online community and what in-person culture still gives usWhy print, books, and real-world encounters still matter more than everFind Brad on Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/bradzellar______________________________________________Message me, leave a comment and join in the conversation!Support the show_________________________________Thank you for listening and for being a part of this incredible community. You can listen and watch full extended and ad-free episodes in my community - The MOOD Insiders - where I also share insights, photography tips and behind-the-scenes content on my channel as well as meet with the community on book club weekly events, special guest features, bonus content, open forum access, free resources and so much more. Join The Community - extended episodes & bonus featureshttps://www.mattjacob.co/insidersThe App That Transformed My Art & Mindhttps://wakingup.go2cloud.org/aff_c?offer_id=3&aff_id=99Website:https://themoodpodcast.comSocials:IG | X | TikTok | Threads | YouTube | @mattyj_ay