The Terrible Creative

Rochester, 1888. George Eastman releases the Kodak camera with a brilliant slogan: "You press the button, we do the rest." Serious photographers immediately panic, calling new users "Button-Pressers" and "Kodak Fiends." One writer declares photography dead: "When everyone is a photographer, then no one is an artist." Same fear. Same argument. Different century. This is Episode 2 of Heresies —where...

Most photographers drown in the edit. Not because they can't see what's good. Because they can't choose what matters. This episode is about the violence of editing—the courage it takes to kill good images, the ego that dies in the process, and why great portfolios are built on rhythm, not range. I tell the story of a La Jolla shoot where I took 1,900 frames in two hours and couldn't figure out whi...

When a client says "I want exactly this," are they hiring you to execute their vision—or are they asking you to solve a problem they can't articulate? This is the first episode in a five-part series called Heresies —where we say the uncomfortable things the industry doesn't want you to think too hard about. In this episode: Why listening to your client might be killing your work. Why taste is a te...

There's a woman in Bangkok who's been selling noodles from the same corner for 43 years. She turned down Bon Appétit. Not because she's shy. Because she didn't want to cook for strangers with expectations. This episode started with a voicemail from Jason, a listener in North Carolina who shoots photos of his kids and has no interest in going pro. He called me out for ignoring non-professionals. An...

EPISODE DESCRIPTION: Three hundred years. That's how long my family has been in America. Jamestown. Virginia. Colonial laborers. Post-Civil War homesteaders in Missouri. And not one of them—not one—ever owned anything that lasted. In 1726, when a British clerk wrote "Fore" instead of "Fauer," my family's name changed. But the pattern didn't. This episode isn't about New Year's resolutions or fresh...

You've mastered the craft. You've built the business. You're successful. But you're still lonely. You're Joshua Bell in the subway—playing a Stradivarius while everyone walks past. You've taken off the costume, rejected the hierarchy, and you're still isolated. So now what? In the finale of "The Long Middle" series, Patrick explores sociologist Ray Oldenburg's concept of "The Third Space"—the pubs...

Why does a $600 light get dismissed while a $3,000 light gets respect, even when they produce identical results? Why do wedding photographers apologize by saying “I’m just a wedding photographer”? And why do we hide the work we’re actually doing because it’s not the “right” kind of work? In Part 3 of The Long Middle series, Patrick examines the hierarchies that divide creative professionals, and a...

When Vanity Fair published Christopher Anderson’s portraits of the White House’s inner circle, the internet reacted to the politics. But as photographers, we need to look closer. We need to look at the framing. In this bonus episode, Patrick Fore deconstructs the word "Framing." It’s not just the rule of thirds or leading lines—it’s authorship. It’s the decision to show truth over comfort, and hum...

Why do photographers wear so much black? Why do we feel confident on stage but panic at networking events? And why is it so hard to find real community in the creative industry? In Part 2 of "The Long Middle" series, Patrick explores the costumes we wear—not just the black clothes and gear, but the professional roles and personas that keep us safe and isolated at the same time. From 17th-century J...

In January 2007, Joshua Bell—one of the world's best violinists—played a $3.5 million Stradivarius in a Washington D.C. subway station. Over 1,000 people walked past. Only 7 stopped to listen. He made $32. If you've ever felt like you're playing your heart out while everyone walks past... this episode is for you. This is Part 1 of a 4-part series called "The Long Middle"—about that specific season...

Belle Gibson faked cancer. The Stauffers rehomed their adopted son when the content became too difficult. Ruby Franke is currently sitting in a prison cell. It’s easy to look at the monsters of the influencer economy and think, "I am nothing like them." But if you peel back the layers of how we document our own lives, the difference might be smaller than we’d like to admit. In this episode, we dig...

June 6, 1944. Robert Capa is wading through the freezing water of Omaha Beach. He captures the most important images of the 20th century, and technically, they are a disaster. They are blurry. They are grainy. They are imperfect. And that is exactly why they matter. In this episode, Patrick explores the physics of light, the "hostage negotiation" of the exposure triangle, and why we are so terrifi...

In 1863, the Paris Salon rejected Édouard Manet's The Luncheon on the Grass for being too messy, too flat, too "unfinished." Today, it's one of the most important paintings in art history. Meanwhile, the "perfect" paintings that won the medals? Nobody remembers them. In this episode, we're deconstructing the biggest question photographers face: What makes a photo "good"? How do we measure it? Who...

In this episode, I talk about the question that has been following me around like a stray dog with abandonment issues: “What am I doing wrong?” A late-night Zoom call. A missed phone call that might have cost me a job. Fabric mocking me at 2 AM. Postponing Christmas. Pretending patience is a virtue when really it’s just a financial liability. This one is not a framework or a lesson. It is a confes...

This is the episode I’ve been avoiding. Not because I don’t have an opinion about AI — but because I have too many feelings about it. Gratitude. Fear. Anger. Wonder. All tangled together. AI has become my external brain — a tool that helps me function, organize, even parent. And at the same time, it’s the thing that might end my career. In this episode, I talk honestly about what Adobe’s new AI to...

Episode 34 | November 2025 I was in my garage last Tuesday, shooting beef tallow. Yes, beef tallow—jarred cow fat with a marketing department. And while I'm adjusting highlights on solidified animal fat for the fourth time, I'm thinking: I used to shoot for Rolling Stone. What happened? Then my friend Candice texted. An illustrator in St. Louis. I asked how business was going. "Everything is a gar...

Have you ever shared something you were excited about only to have it met with "yeah, maybe" or "how are you going to monetize that?" In this episode, I sit down with a story that's been eating at me for weeks — a conversation at a coffee shop that revealed something uncomfortable about regret, haunted creatives, and the ghosts of unmade work. This isn't about toxic positivity or hustle culture. I...

You ever buy a twenty-two-dollar airport sandwich and convinced yourself it was worth it? That’s what this week’s episode is about — except the sandwich is a photography competition. In Gold Star , Patrick unpacks his love-hate relationship with the American Photographic Artists’ Untitled competition — and what it reveals about the creative world’s obsession with approval. From spreadsheets of jud...

Why creatives stay stuck, even when the door’s wide open. We all want freedom. Creative freedom, emotional freedom, professional freedom. But here’s the thing nobody tells you: You can be free… and still live like you’re caged. In this episode, I break down the three invisible cages every creative person ends up pacing: The Industry Cage – tribes, gear cults, status games, and the performance of “...

A milestone. And maybe the most uncomfortable episode I've made so far. A few weeks ago, I sent an email to thirty photographers I know. I asked them one question: What's your dirty little secret? The thing you'd never admit publicly. The thought that lives in the back of your brain at 3 AM. I told them it would be anonymous. I just wanted the truth. And I got a lot of responses. This episode is a...

Have you ever had a day where you told yourself you were “busy” … but couldn’t actually remember what you did? I know I have. Hours lost to scrolling, inboxes, half-finished tasks — and somehow at the end of it, I’m exhausted but nothing’s really done. In this episode of The Terrible Photographer Podcast, I go after the two liars in my head who keep me trapped in that fake middle ground: Hustle Ha...

What if the most radical thing you can say about your creative work is: it’s okay ? In this episode, Patrick dives into the beige middle of creative life — the 80% of days that aren’t fireworks or disasters. He tears into LinkedIn’s toxic lobster-and-champagne highlight reel, confesses his late-night burger-level Photoshop grinds, and introduces us to Sarah, a catering coordinator who redefined wh...

A New York–based commercial portrait photographer (big clients, covers, immaculate work) asked to talk. What came out wasn’t a portfolio review—it was a confession: he hasn’t made anything for himself in over a year, and he’s exhausted from performing passion he doesn’t feel. This episode is a permission slip for the photographers—and all creative workers—secretly pricing escape routes at 2 a.m. W...

One meditation. One burning question. One reminder you’re not alone. Every Wednesday in your inbox — shorter, sharper, and more honest than I could ever be in a long essay. Subscribe to Pub Notes: terriblephotographer.com Some days the world is too loud, too endless. You don’t need another lecture. You need a pint, a hard truth, and a line you can actually carry into tomorrow. This week’s episode...

Every kid asks their art teacher, “Is it good?” —and most of us never stop. In this episode, Patrick sits in Lucy’s middle-school art room and realizes he’s still chasing the same answer on high-stakes sets: watching client faces, parsing murmurs behind a monitor, riding the narcotic of approval. We get into the modern authorities—clients, algorithms, mood boards—and the way we internalize them un...